Final Fantasy XIII-2: My Version
by Kataang9
Summary: Read the Introduction chapter
1. Introduction

I have played Lightning Returns and I think that game is seriously twisted. So I've decided to create my own version of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Frankly, I'm starting to wish I could actually make it into a game, if only it was possible. However, I am gonna try to describe some parts in what it'll be like in a game, just so you guys could visualize it.

What happens in this story it takes place a year after Cocoon's fall, when Lightning and the gang are being threatened by Caius. Noel helps them out on their journey to find out what Caius is up to. I have also done a few changes just to make it imagine how what this whole thing would be like if it were actually a game. Some pieces of the story, such as places and abilities and characters and such, may seem like a mix of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns, but keep in mind this is a completely different story of the two. Even that monster Bhunivelze isn't going to be the God himself. No, no, no. In fact, he's one of the reasons I think Lightning Returns is messed up (**DO NOT** say anything about Bhunivelze that defends him in his role in LR or any of the original FFXIII's, cause I do not want to hear it!)

Here are some changes. Few you might wanna see cause they'll be mentioned in the story (In battles that is) others you don't have too, unless you want to imagine how FFXIII-2 would be like as a game. Those you should know, if this was a game, Yeul would be some bonus character you unlock when you beat the game. There would also be some zone known as "Ragnarok's Lair" which is also something that appears when you beat the game, it's like the world's most toughest, longest dungeon to face. Let me put it to you this way: The place will still be tough and challenging even when you have all the characters in full Crystarium, ultimate weapons - Maximum level and powerful accessories - Maximum level.

**Arena Coliseum:**

There's going to be this arena known as "Dreadzone" where you fight enemies (Develops based on your level. The stronger Lightning and the others become stronger, so do the matches) where you face them in a number of matches in a row, much like the Coliseum in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. In this tournament, you would not only face monsters and enemies of FFXIII, but also enemies throughout any of the previous Final Fantasies.

There would also be some selections that would make things interesting or challenging:

Heroic: Enemies are twice as strong then normal.

Double Trouble: Face the tournament matches in a party of two people. Enemies will also be 1.5x as strong then normal.

Time Limit: Face the tournament on normal mode but have to beat it before the timer runs out. Amount of time is based on number of matches.

**New Role - Shaman:**

There's going to be another role for the former l'Cie gang. Known as "Shaman". (It's the best name I could think of. Any of you guess have any better role ideas, I'd loved to hear it.) The role is where it's just like Ravager, attacking with elemental damage while boosting the stagger chain. I have decided that the attacks in Ravager: Flamestrike, Froststrike, Galestrike, Sparkstrike and Aquastrike should be in their own role, since I think those in the physical fighting ranks, including those who don't have the Ravager role as a Primary like Fang, should have a role to help boost the stagger chain. Yes, I'm aware of the Saboteur role, but it's not enough. Even when the enemies are already sabotaged.

**New Role Sets:**

Lightning - Commando, Ravager, Shaman, Medic  
>Snow - Commando, Ravager, Shaman, Sentinel<br>Sazh - Commando, Ravager, Shaman, Synergist  
>Vanille - Ravager, Shaman, Medic, Saboteur<br>Serah - Commando, Ravager, Medic, Shaman  
>Hope - Ravager, Medic, Synergist, Commando<br>Fang - Commando, Shaman, Sentinel, Saboteur  
>Me - Commando, Saboteur, Synergist, Shaman<br>Noel - Commando, Shaman, Sentinel, Synergist  
>Yeul - Ravager, Synergist, Medic, Saboteur<p>

**New Abilities:**

Commando - Shoot: Shoot at the target with a bow/gun weapon.  
>Command - Rend (Passive): Deals damage overtime based on the damage applied to the enemy, only affected on targets affected by deprotect<br>Command - Bloodthirsty (Passive): Restores some health when attacking targets affected by Rend  
>Ravager - Element: Deals a combine attack of fire, water, ice, lightning and wind<br>Ravager - Elementga: Same as Element only as Area of Effect  
>Ravager - Banish: Deals holy damage<br>Ravager - Banishra: Deals holy damage. Greater on staggered targets  
>Ravager - Banishga: Deals holy damage in a wide radius<br>Shaman - Galestrike: Attacks the enemy with a wind-based strike  
>Shaman - Elemental (Passive): Increases the damage of an attack that matches with an element buff (Such as Flamestrike deals more damage when applied with Enfire).<br>Shaman - Flame/Frost/Aqua/Aero/Electric Blitz: Does Blitz in an elemental attack  
>Sentinel - Heavy Guard: Blocks a large amount of damage for a short time<br>Medic - Regen: Restores the target's health overtime. Uneffected to those with Poison  
>Medic - Great Gospel: (Yeul only. Her special ability) Full restores the parties health and also grants Protect, Shell and Veil<br>Synergist - Faithga/Braveriga/Protectga/Shellga/Hastega: What they apply in the first stages, only affecting the entire party  
>Synergist - Enaero: Allows ones attacks in Commando, Saboteur and Sentinel to do wind-based attacks.<br>Synergist - Enpoison: Allows ones attacks in Commando, Saboteur and Sentinel to do poison-based attacks. Chance of applying poison on the target.

**Crystarium:**

For the Crystarium, I figured it should work the way it is in the original FFXIII. However, I am changing the amount of stat increases in the secondary ones, like Lightning's Synergist, Sabotuer and Sentinel. Personally I don't really get why they have to be so low. Makes it seem pretty stupid since they cause like thousands of Crystarium Points. Plus, the characters are going to unlock their Eidolons through the Crystarium just like Accessories and an ATB boost. I figured it's best that way since everyone already earned their eidolons.

**Stats:**

**Lightning**

Health: 300 (Minimum) 42500 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average-High<br>Magic: Average

**Snow**

Health: 500 (Minimum) 50000 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average-High<br>Magic: Average-Low

**Vanille**

Health: 400 (Minimum) 45070 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average<br>Magic: High

**Hope**

Health: 240 (Minimum) 41000 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Low<br>Magic: Very High

**Sazh**

Health: 310 (Minimum) 46050 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average<br>Magic: Average

**Fang**

Health: 390 (Minimum) 48000 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Very High<br>Magic: Very Low

**Myself (Patrick)**

Health: 400 (Minimum) 47000 (Maximum)  
>Strength: High<br>Magic: Average

**Serah**

Health: 350 (Minimum) 45000 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average<br>Magic: Average

**Noel**

Health: 400 (Minimum) 49500 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Average-High<br>Magic: Low

**Yeul**

Health: 200 (Minimum) 32500 (Maximum)  
>Strength: Extremely Low<br>Magic: Extremely High


	2. Prologue

Cocoon

A planet. a floating shall that rests in the skies of Gran Pulse.

Cocoon was once our home planet, until the day when Vanille and Fang awaken from their crystal stasis. The first thirteen days when they awaken have changed everything. Serah had become a l'Cie, and because of her, we all did too.

During our time as l'Cie, we had been through some rough times and many changes. Despair. Hope. Fear. Bravery. Doubt. Faith. Anger. In the end, we've bonded well close, and became a family.

Our focus was one thing that was hard to accept: Become Ragnoark. Destroy Orphan and tore Cocoon right out of the sky. The fal'Cie, Barthandelus, lead us to our fate. In the end, we defeated Barthandelus and destroyed Orphan. Cocoon fall from the sky, but during the fall, we all became Ragnoark and saved Cocoon from its own destruction.

We were all put in crystal stasis, and we all woke up together shortly afterwards. Cocoon was saved. We were free from our l'Cie curse. And the best part of all, my best friend/Snow's fiancé/Lightning's sister: Serah Farron, returned to us, awaken from her crystal slumber. Oh yeah, and Sazh was reunited with his son Dajh as well.

After Cocoon's fall, we've decided to build a new home, a new life and a brand new world on Gran Pulse. Our actions of bringing down Cocoon have awaken everyone from their nightmares. They all thought Gran Pulse was hell, but the moment they get a sighting of this beautiful wildlife, they learned that they had it all wrong. All though that still doesn't mean they're afraid off it, for it's crawling with wildlife monsters.

We spent the rest of the day resting, since we need to restore our energy for big plans we have tomorrow. Serah and Hope got to meet each other personally, some alone time together I might add. They talked most of the day. Serah does tell Hope that she feels bad for what happened to his mother. Even though it wasn't her fault, she can't help but feel like she's part of it, since I, her best friend, couldn't keep my promise to Hope I'd keep her save and she died in the hands of Snow, her boyfriend/fiancé. In the end, Serah and Hope became close friends. They have really bonded, which makes me, Lightning and Snow happy.

On the next day, we've begun traveling around Gran Pulse finding a nice place to start building homes. PSICOM, NORA and Guardian Corps decided to work together to help out the citizens build a new home on Gran Pulse. Some of PSICOM troops are still bad. They still hated Pulse and accused all of us as traitors. The evil PSICOM left and follow their own path. The Guardian Corps and the good PSICOM decided to work together as a brand new Sanctum. They now call themselves "ORPHAN", which stands for: Organized Regiment Preventing Harm Against Natives. And Cid Raines became Primarch of the Sanctum.

They do their duties to protect us from the wildlife. We former l'Cie gangs even help out with fighting off the wildlife. Even though we're no longer l'Cies, we all still have our powers and eidolons.

We have found a tunnel that leads us to a decent cove, with a lovely ocean shore. It reminded us about the city Bodhum, so we've decided to make our home right here. Hope and Lightning told us about Hope's wish back in Nautlius, that we would all be together as a family when our journey was over. Vanille and Serah thought it was really sweet, Snow and Sazh thinks it was nice and Fang just smiles at Hope and gives him a pat on the head. Even team NORA is going to be living with us. Lightning might find it a bit irritating, but she figured she'll grow into it since she's growing into Snow. After all, she did accept his hand in marriage with Serah.

We sported a large plateau up on the cliffs, where it would be perfect for our home. We have started construction on our home, even all the other citizens helped out. Literally all the others, as in there was not a single other citizen, other then ORPHAN, doing anything else. The citizens wanted to repay us for helping them open their eyes to the truth, and also apologize for treating us all like monsters and fearing us when we were l'Cie.

By the end of the day, we have created our home, or mansion I should say. It was a three story house, big and wide. It has a large living room, a big kitchen, a lovely dinning room, a large back and front yard, a stables for Snowflake, five bedrooms, three of them with showers, fifteen bedrooms, with four leftover as guest rooms, a gate and stair case for us to reach to the house, so we don't have to climb up the cliff.

By the end of the day, everyone was tired and we turned in. As a thankful gesture, we allowed the citizens to sleep in the mansion so they wouldn't have to stay out in the cold dark night. However, we couldn't fit everyone, just a few hundred. But still, every little bit helps.

On the second day, Me, Lightning, Serah, Snow, Sazh and Hope decided to return to Cocoon to pick up our household items. Fang and Vanille stays behind to help out the Cocoon citizens. Even Fang formed a group of hunters to hunt for food. They even took out a large Adamantortoise or two to supply food for the first month, so we don't have to waste our time by sending a few citizens for food. More hands means faster work done.

When we arrived at Cocoon, we weren't pleased at how it looks. Many cities, completely or nearly destroyed in crystal. Our houses, either fully or nearly, were still standing, so our household objects were still save. While we were in Palumpolum, we learned that Hopes father, Bartholomew, died in the hands of PSICOM. It was a tragic moment, especially since Hope is now an orphan. We all felt bad for the kid, but Hope says that it's okay. He thinks it's probably for the best since he knows that he and his dad wouldn't get along now that Nora is gone. She is the glue that holds them together.

Lightning decided to take Hope in under her wing. She adopted the young kid and became her guardian. Since then, Hope and Lightning have been closer then ever. Whenever one of them was in trouble, like if Lightning was injured, Hope was sad and scared, they took care of each other. Serah's really happy to have Hope in the Farron family, she always did wanted a little brother. Her favorite moment was when she found Lightning and Hope laying together in bed, when Hope wraps his arms around Lightning and called her 'mom' in his sleep. She thought it was really sweet and cute.

At sunset, we returned to Gran Pulse and stored our stuff in the mansion. However, since our house was filled with hundreds of people, strangers I might add, we had to keep our stuff in storage in boxes until our business is done.

On the very next day, we have begun building houses for all the other citizens. One-by-one, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Houses are made, and then our buildings such as a school, hospital, pier houses, restaurants and a new NORA cafe.

A few days later, the children starts to become very sick and ill, including young Dajh. All of them caught the very same sickness that Hope had during our first few days on Gran Pulse. We call this sickly disease pneumonia. Many of the citizens starts to worry about their younglings. Vanille and Serah took some time off from construction to help out the sick. Sazh also offered some help since Dajh is involved. By the end of the week, the children became very well again even Dajh. But not all made it through. Very few of the children didn't make it. Wasn't much, just five or six children, which is like 1/1000 to us.

By the end of the second week, our new city was made. We called it New Bodhum. It was the largest city, by that, it was larger then the original Bodhum.

For the finishing touch of our new city, we have created a large memorial fountain in the heart of the city, which is right out in front of the stairs of the plateau of our mansion. It's basically a large fountain with three layers, including the ground, and there are statues at the every edge of the bottom layer, made entirely of crystal, of me, Lightning, Sazh, Serah, Snow, Hope, Vanille and Fang. The statues are about life sized.

On the podiums the statues stand on, are our crystariums: Lightning's pink rose, Snow's blue heart, Serah's crystal tear, Sazh's orange-yellow feather, Fangs orange-purple check, Hope's white light orb, Vanilles orange-green heart and my black arrow.

Underneath those crystarium's are our names. For Lightning, she decided to use her real name: "Claire 'Lightning' Farron". She still goes by the name Lightning, but she had to get use to people calling her Claire since they think it's her first name, even though it is, but she goes with Lightning as her first name. Some of the people figured she goes by Lightning then there are single quotes in that work on the statue.

And on the top is a large monument statue of the crystal pillar of the crystalized Cocoon. Also made entirely of crystal. The statue is like three times as big and large as us. In the fountain in between the Lightning and Snow statue is a plaque:

'The heroes of Cocoon. Those who save the world from destruction. From the start, they were known as Pulse l'Cie who seemed to destroy Cocoon, but in the end, they saved it and freed us all from the fal'Cie nightmare. A lot of lives have died and a lot of dreams have shattered during the war, all for the l'Cie heroes to save the world. May the souls of the fallen rest in peace.'

Everyone is really attached to the fountain. A lot of people come here and visit it. Most of the people who lost their love ones during the war usually come here to talk to them in prayers, even me and Hope come here to talk to our parents.

When New Bodhum was done, all the other homeless citizens moved on, building new homes and cities throughout the lands. At the end of the first month, we all moved on and life on through out our new world.

Lightning returned to her duties in the ORPHAN Guardian Corps. During her return, she was promoted General since they are short handed, thanks to us for killing off their men back on Cocoon. Oh the irony. Serah became worried for Lightning, but she knows that she can take care of herself, even since she has Odin on her side.

Snow still worked with his NORA group. During their time, they traveled around Pulse helping out the citizens build their homes. When the construction starts to settle down, as in they don't need every help they can get like they did in the first place, they returned to New Bodhum and ran the cafe shop.

Hope started working with the PSICOM scientists of ORPHAN. He's a really smart kid, even Lightning's impressed. Hope even created an advanced technology, a powerful force fields to protect the city from wildlife's. The shield is like a bubble, only humans and chocobos can cross through it, while anything else that's an animal or beast, the shield rebels.

Vanille decided to become a nurse, since she enjoyed her job of taking care of the sickly children from the first week of Pulse. She does a very good job of healing the sick and injured. She even healed the scars from the cuts I gave myself. The results were pretty good, there's only a few left, but she believes it'll fade over time.

Serah decided to become a school teacher. She gives the kids a great education, even Dajh was in her classes. The kids both love her and are afraid of her. Apparently Serah becomes mean and scary when the kids disobeyed her. They even call her "Meanie Ms. Farron" I was really surprised, I always thought of Serah as an angel, I've never expect her to have a bad side. No doubt about it: She and Lightning are sisters all right. On her off time, me and Lightning teaches Serah how to fight. Lightning taught her how to wield a sword while I teach her how to shoot a bow.

Sazh runs a weapons shop for the soldiers and hunters. On his off time, he's also a pilot who travels everyone around the world to far away places, or to the crystalized Cocoon. Sazh even created a new weapon for Serah, a Bowsword. Where it's like Lightning's Gunblade, but it's a two-handed sword that turns into a bow. I guess all those lessons me and Lightning were giving Serah really paid off, huh?

Fang leads a group of hunters. Her job is to hunt the wildlife out in Pulse for food and water. Fang does a good job at training her companions. Sure, she can be a little harsh, but the wildlife is for the strong and the weak gets ruled out. If you want to get strong, you gotta get tough. Which means Fang has to give them some tough love.

As for me, I have decided to give up my Mercenary Job, since money didn't matter from the start. It's all about survival. I spent my time helping out other citizens. I even joined Snow and team NORA on the construction travels. I started to bond with NORA, and a little bit from Snow as well. We weren't close...well, I wasn't close with him. I still despise him, just not as much as I use to. You could say I'm just giving him the cold shoulder.

When I got back to New Bodhum, Lightning offered be a job in ORPHAN. She was actually impressed with my skills and strategy during our time as l'Cie. I was promoted to Sergeant like she was back then. We became excellent partners, we always had each others back.

Our journey was over, but a new one is just beginning.


	3. PSICOM Vestige

A/N: The beginning of Final Fantasy XIII-2. It has been a whole year since Cocoon's fall. A lot has happened since then. Looks like we have a lot of catching up to do. Let's start with Lightning and I as we both go on a mission to the PSICOM Vestige.

Chapter 1: PSICOM Vestige

* * *

><p>One year has passed since Orphan's defeat and Cocoon fell from the sky. In the middle of the large grass-field is Lightning, sitting on the edge of a hundred foot cliff. Lightning's new outfit is a mix of her Guardian Corps uniform and her Guardian of Valhalla armor:<p>

A black sleeveless, of both legs and arms, suit with the silver breastplate. Metal silver boots that go up to her knees. Roman brown skirt that only goes from thigh to back to thigh, with gold patterns on the bottom of each line. Silver shoulders with the red highlight lines. Fingerless blues gloves with the long black sleeve that goes up her upper arms (She'll wear that on both of her arms instead of just the one). Her leather pouch wrapped around her upper left leg. Half a scarlet cape and the holster for her Gunblade, bottom half of it covered by the cape, is hanging from her back instead of her behind.

Lightning gazes at the large crystalized pillar that holds Cocoon in place, which is over a hundred miles from her location, with the wind blow briskly through her hair. She hasn't changed much. She's now 22 with her hair slightly a little longer with a single hot pink stroke in the front down at her lazy ponytail (That's what I think her hair is like).

Lately, Lightning's been spending most of her time viewing the pillar. Both the actual pillar and the memorial fountain over in New Bodhum. No one knows why she is, everytime someone asked, she just shuts them out. Lightning inhales deeply through her nose then exhales from her mouth.

The sound of a train whistle and low engine rumbling noise catches her attention. "Hmm?" Lightning looks down at the far ground level beneath her. She pays her attention to the train tracks in the middle of the field. She sees a train is arriving. The train as a symbol on the side of the box cars: A large X with small x's form on the lines of the big X, and arrows on the all of the remaining lines of the lesser x's, and finally, and eye in the center of that big X's. The symbol of PSICOM. "There you are..."

Lightning gets on her feet. She makes a couple of steps back, then runs and jumps off the cliff. Lightning dives head first, eyes locked onto the train. She's halfway down from impact, but the train is far from her landing spot. Lightning falls flat, arms and legs spread out, slowing her fall.

The soldier girl focuses hard on her target. The train arrives at the landing spot, and Lightning dives head on once again. She lands on her hands and legs at the very last box car. She rests for a moment to recover her strength, then stands up.

The strong force of wind blows against her, but she makes her stand to resist. Just then, PSICOM troopers and an officer climbs out of the train and onto the roof, aiming their guns at Lightning. "It's General Farron of ORPHAN! Kill her!" The officer orders.

The troopers starts charing and the soldiers starts charging at her. Lightning takes out her weapon, the Gunblade: Overture. Lightning deflects the bullets with her weapon, and then dodges and avoids the soldiers when they come in contact with her. Lightning mostly avoids and rarely strikes back. She was able to knock one soldier down.

One other soldier comes close to her. The moment she realize, the soldier punches her right in the head, and she gets knocked back. Lightning falls and crashes onto the tracks, her body rolling and sliding on the steel and dirt grounds of the tracks. When she stops, she pulls her upper body up and looks ahead, seeing the train getting away.

Frustrated, Lightning slams her fist on the ground. "Damn it!" Lightning stands up, just looking at the distance ahead. She puts her left hand on her hip, tilting to her left as she thinks of a plan. "Well...now what?" She whispers to herself.

Just then, the white Chocobo, Snowflake, rushes in and stops next to Lightning. She was a little startled. She turned to see it's just Snowflake and I. My outfit is a black trench-coat, that goes down to my upper legs, with dark purple lining going down the sleeves and a white outlined Sergeant rank symbol on the left upper sleeve. Dark purple t-shirt underneath the trench coat, black pants, my two pouches, hidden beneath the trench coat, wrapped and tied to my belt, and brownish hunting boots. Black fingerless gloves. Black strips, two coming over the shoulders and two coming from underneath the shoulders, forming an X on the chest, to hold on to the quiver. Complete with a black fedora with the golden Mockingjay pin on it and my mothers diamond heart necklace.

"I spotted the PSICOM train!" I say. Lightning gives a frustrated look, spreading her arms out and twitches at me. She obviously knows about the train. "Quick! Get on!" Lightning hops on Snowflakes back behind me, then I give a whip on the reins. "Hyah Snowflake!"

Snowflake kwehs and runs down the track with all of her agility. Me and Lightning leans head on with Snowflake to help produce speed. We begin to catch up to the train. PSICOM troopers sees us chasing after them.

"Farron's back! And she's with the Shadow Hunter!" The trooper warns.

The PSICOM office makes his way to the head of the train. When he does, he moves his head in view at the top of the door. "Hey!" The engineer turns to see the officer. "More speed! Trouble is tailing us!"

The engineer nods. He does his work around the controls, then shovels more coal. Soon enough, the train is picking up speed, even more then Snowflake can.

"They're getting away!" Lightning shouts.

"Oh no they're not! Haste!" I apply Haste onto Snowflake. The chocobo stops for a brief moment as the high-speed energy courses through her, then she takes off in a sonicboom.

We catch up to the train. The troopers at the end aren't too happy. "They're coming!"

"Just shoot, you bonehead!" The two troopers take out their guns and starts shooting at Snowflake. Snowflake moves side to side, avoiding the bullets. I take out my bow, load it with an arrow and shoots at the troopers. One of them gets killed from the shoot, but gets replaced with two more. We're about a foot from behind the train. Lightning stands on the chocobos back, then jumps back on, knocking out the troopers in her way.

More troopers up ahead starts shooting at Lightning. The train enters a tunnel. I drive Snowflake into running up on the wall (Yes, the Haste makes her that fast). As we run up the wall, I lock my legs on the chocobos body to hang on, and I start shooting at the troopers shooting at Lightning.

Lightning starts running down the box cars. The soldiers are worried. "Commander! What now?"

"Soldiers! Take out the general!" The officer orders. Some of the soldiers gets shot by my arrows. The officer looks by the wall, seeing Snowflake running on it with me shooting at them. "Troopers! Take out that Shadow Hunter!"

The troopers move to the side of the train roof and starts shooting at me and Snowflake. I cast a protection spell on us, blocking the bullets.

Lightning charges her way through the roof of the train, cutting down any of the soldiers that got in her way. Whike the troopers are reloading, I stop channeling the Protect and start shooting at the troopers. I knock out half of them, Lightning takes care of the rest when she reaches them.

It's now just the officer. He holds his lance out, defending himself. Lightning stands in front of the officer, her weapon hold out, the very tip of it just inches from his face.

"You wouldn't dare!" The officer says.

Lightning smirks, and she tosses her weapon above her. The officer keeps his eyes on the blade. Snowflake runs on the ceiling over the tunnel, that's when I let go and fall down. I grab Lightning's weapon mid-fall and I slash the officer, ending his life and his body falls off of the train.

Me and Lightning stands as the train rushes through the tunnels. I return Lightning her weapon. "Piece of cake." I say.

The train rides into an area surrounded by walls, like a giant goldfish bowl. The train stops at the entrance. When it stops, me and Lightning takes a look at the place. All there is in the area is the ruins of the fallen Orphan's Cradle and Edenhall, hundreds of human slaves doing hard labor, and on the top of the wall is a vestige that's just like the one where we all became l'Cie, back on Cocoon.

Lightning looks at the distant vestige and points at it. "There! Our target: The PSICOM vestige."

I look at the vestige. "Looks just like that one back in the Hanging Edge." I say.

It really is. This vestige is the Pulse Vestige back on Cocoon. PSICOM took it from Lake Bresha and used it as some new base or a super weapon. Either way, it's bad news and we have orders to destroy it.

Lightning doesn't bother paying attention to my comment. "Let's roll."

Me and Lightning hops off the train. As soon as we do, we're being attacked by a giant Cybug, Robotic bugs. PSICOM created Cybugs as companions to assist them in battle, such as those Pantheron's or Proto Behemoth's. This one is about fifteen feet tall, in Mantid form. Empress Windleaf.

"Well, looks like things just got interesting." I say. Me and Lightning position ourselves for battle.

[Paradigm Shift - Locked: If this were a game, I figured the Paradigm Shift's would be locked to this. Just for this first chapter at least. Figured it would be best for amateurs, I remember messing up the whole shift system back when I first played FFXIII:

Enhancement - Lightning: Commando/Me: Shaman  
>Avatar - Lightning: RavagerMe: Shaman  
>Double Trouble - Lightning: CommandoMe: Commando  
>Shadow Blade - Lightning: ShamanMe: Saboteur  
>War &amp; Peace - Lightning: MedicMe: Commando  
>Symbiosis - Lightning: MedicMe: Synergist]

Lightning charges at the Empress, striking at it. I stand back and shoot with Flamestrike, shooting with burning arrows. Empress Windleaf releases it's razor claws, and slashes at Lightning. Lightning shifts into Ravager and casts Thunder. Gun holes appear in the Empress's body and it starts shooting at us. Lightning shifts into Medic and starts healing herself. I kept shooting Flamestrike at Empress Windleaf, then both me and Lightning shifts into Command. I shoot and she strikes.

Empress Windleaf stumbles back. "Let's go." Lightning says, as we both move on ahead.

Me and Lightning reaches to the end of the side walk, then we started climbing on top of the rubble. Empress Windleaf shakes off the nerves. It turns to see us escaping. Empress Windleaf spreads it wings and flies after us. When we make it to the top, the Cybug gets in our way.

We take our out weapons. "This thing just won't give up, would it?" I ask.

"You tell me." Lightning says.

[In game. Most of the fights are going to have enemies that'll be out of range. Where they can only be hit through ranged attacks and spells.]

I start shift shifting into Synergist, giving me and Lightning Haste. Lightning starts shooting at the Empress Windleaf with her Gunblade. Empress Windleaf screeches with Deafening Roar. The sound dazes me and Lightning, then Empress Windleaf shoots at us through the gun holes on its body, removing the daze but hitting us with twice the damage.

I shift into Commando, start shooting at the Cybug. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on her then me. Empress Windleaf shoots lasers at me and Lightning. Lightning finishes healing us, then shifts into Ravager and casts Thunder at the Cybug. I shift into Saboteur and start casting Deprotect and Deshall. Emrpess Windleaf fires missiles from behind, the missiles hits us.

I shift into Shaman and strikes the Cybug with Flamestrikes. Me and Lightning goes on with attacking until we have the boss staggering, then we both shift into Commando. Lightning starts of with a Ruin spell then shoots with her Gunblade. I shoot with my bow and arrows. The Empress Windleaf rarely gets to fight back due to staggering. Whenever she does, she only shoots at us.

In the end, Empress Windleaf statics and retreats, flying high in the sky until it was out of sight. Me and Lightning puts away our weapons. "Tch. That thing really bugs me." Lightning says. I chuckled hearing that. Lightning looks at me with disapproval. "Just what is so funny?"

I stop laughing for the moment to answer. "What you said. It's funny." I say. "You said that thing bugs you...and it's a bug. It's a clever play on words." Lightning just squints her eyes at me, telling me that she's not getting it, not seeing it funny or now's not the time. My chuckling dies down. "Err...nevermind." I put my hands on my hips and then take a deep sigh. "So, what's the mission, General?"

Lightning turns, so do I, and we face directly at the PSICOM Vestige. "We get into that vestige and destroy it." Lightning says. "Primarch Raines believes that PSICOM is creating l'Cie's in their army."

I give a close, yet far, look at the vestige. "Hmm...I don't know. I don't really think it makes sense. I'm pretty sure PSICOM would hate l'Cie cause we put the lights out on Cocoon." Lightning turns her head, facing me, but says nothing. I look down at the slaves on the ground below us. "I can't believe this is happening. PSICOM would be evil enough to turn everyone that's against them into slaves."

"It doesn't surprise me, given to the Purge they did back on Cocoon." Lightning says.

The PSICOM vestige surveillances the area, scanning for any signs of trouble. When it spots me and Lightning, a loud alarm goes on, startling me and Lightning. A bright red light shines at the top of the vestige, and unleashes red rays of light. The rays hit the citizens, which pains them greatly. Me and Lightning looks down, surprised. Instantly, the rays of light turns anyone that's been caught in them...into Cie'th.

"What the!" I say, shocked and flinching back. The Cie'th monsters are on their knees and hands, then starts standing up, moaning and roaring. "It turns human's...into Cie'th!? That is really messed up."

Lightning looks up at the vestige. "It seems that PSICOM is creating a weapon to turn people Cie'th." Lightning stands in place, looking up at the vestige without saying a word, then she starts climbing down.

I take notice that Lightning's moving. "He-hey. Wait up." I start climbing down with Lightning. Our journey begins.

Me and Lightning runs down the Forsaken Cradle, we cut down any Cie'th that gets in our way. Lightning cuts them down, or in the Winged Cie'th's case, shoots at them, while I stay behind and shoot with Flamestrike. Few of the Cie'th fights back. Whenever we're weakened, Lightning shifts into Medic and casts Cure on one of us. When the Cie'ths are dead, we continue down our path.

"If this is one of their bases, they must be on budget cuts. This place is a dump." I say.

So far, we've killed about five Winged, eleven Shambling and seven of those creepy disembodied arms. Even for a Cie'th, that's just disturbing. At the end of the path, we faced two Unusual Cie'ths. Both of them shield themselves with a barrier. Lightning had to shift into Ravager and cast her Thunder spells on them, while I use my Flamestrike ability.

The Unusual Cie'th battle took a while, but we've manage to defeat them. Me and Lightning stands, looking back at the path we took. I just view at the fallen Cie'th we have slain. "This doesn't make any sense. Why would PSICOM turn people into Cie'th?" I asked.

"Who knows?" Lightning turns and looks up at the vestige. "Perhaps we'll find our answers up there."

I start walking ahead. "Then let's get moving." I say.

Me and Lightning continues on. A large pile of rubble was in our way, so we have to climb over it. Behind that pile of rubble wasn't very welcoming. PSICOM troopers and Cybug companions attacked us. I shifted into Synergist and grant me and Lightning Haste, then I shift into Commando and shoot at the troopers.

One of the Cybugs bites at Lightning. I shoot it, destroying it. Lightning finishes off the troopers and we move on ahead. More troopers and soldiers stands in our way, with Cybugs and Pantheron. These battles were formed into groups, so me and Lightning both attacked in Commando with Blitz (In case you're unaware, my version of Blitz is using the Throwing Stars, throwing a hand full of them, which is four, at the enemies.)

The Pantheron's and Cybugs fell fast from the double Blitz. I shift into Shaman and attack PSICOM with Flamestrike, Lightning strikes at PSICOM as well. The soldiers strikes at me, I shift into Saboteur and cast Deprotect on all the soldiers. Lightning makes a quick kill on them and finishes off the troopers as well.

Me and Lightning continues down the path. "PSICOM just doesn't know when to quit, do they?" I asked.

Me and Lightning arrived at the end of the path, the wall. The PSICOM Vestige is right above our heads. We take the ramp path on the side. On our way, we run into trouble with Winged Cie'th. We stopped and start shooting at the creatures. The Winged Cie'ths strikes at us. One of them does Wind Gale, striking at us with half a dozen of razor winds.

Lightning had to shift into Medic and heal us. The Winged Cie'th gathers, then I shift into Commando and do Blitz on them. One reminds, and Lightning shifts back into Commando and finishes it. We continue down the path. We reached to the end at one direction, make the U-turn and run up the path above. More Winged Cie'ths attacked us. I shift into Saboteur and cast Deprotect and Deshell on them. Lightning starts off with a Ruin spell then shoots at them with her Gunblade. I shift back into Commando and join Lightning on the shooting. The Winged Cie'th falls quickly, then we continue on.

We arrived at the top, at the front steps of the Vestige. Me and Lightning arrives at the Vestige. The entrance is guarded by only two troopers. "The entrance is guarded." I say.

"Is it? I didn't notice." Lightning says sarcastically.

I looked a little hurt hearing Lightning say that. "Right...so what's the plan?"

Lightning takes out her Gunblade. "What else is there?"

Lightning charges in. I sigh, taking out my bow. "It is pretty obvious." I follow Lightning from behind.

The troopers notices use coming up. "Huh! Hey! Intruders!" The two troopers rushes out of their positions and battles us. Lightning strikes at them while I shoot with Flamestrike. Troopers shoot at us, they didn't deal much damage to us, so we kept on striking at them, until they fall.

Me and Lightning stands in front of the entrance of the Vestige. We look up at the vestige then at the door. I cross my arms in front of my chest. "Now...how are we gonna get inside?"

Lightning steps up. She grabs the crack in the center and pulls the doors open. But that doesn't work, the doors don't even budge. Lightning groans as she uses all of her strength to open it. After a minute of trying, Lightning stops. She steps back, then strikes at the door with her weapon. I just stand back and watch, this clearly isn't helping.

Lightning soon gets tired of attacking, I get tired of watching. I walk up, moving Lightning out of the way. "Step aside. I'll show you how it's done." I reach into one of my pouches. I take out an explosive device. Lightning seems surprised to see it.

"You still carry those things around?" She asks.

I look over my shoulder to face Lightning as I set the device. "If there's one thing I've learned during my years as a Mercenary, it's that you've always got to be prepared for anything." The device is set, then I hook it up on the wall. I turned it on, set to go off in ten seconds. "There. Take cover!"

Me and Lightning makes a run for it. We hide behind a small trench about twenty feet from the vestige. 3...2...1...BOOM! A loud explosion and a dense smoke happens. We wait for half a minute, then we stand up, taking a look. At first, there's nothing but black smoke, then it starts to clear, revealing a blown entrance where the doors use to be. Me and Lightning comes out of the trench and approaches at the entrance. I smile and turn to face Lightning.

"And that is how it's done." I say. Lightning rolls her eyes at me, then rolls them straight ahead. I give an upset look, finding her silent offensive. "'Gee, Patrick. That was brilliant idea you had there.'" I shrugged my shoulders. "Why thank you, Light."

I walk up behind Lightning. The girl just stands in place, looking at the inside of the vestige. I stop right next to Lightning, taking a view of the vestige. "This sure brings back memories. Just like the one from Bodhum." I say.

"Yeah, well we're not here to take a trip to memory lane." Lightning says.

"If we were, I think I would visit Oerba." I say.

"Whatever. There's got to be some control room in here." Lightning faces forward and start walking ahead. "Somewhere..." I follow Lightning.

We wonder down the Ambulatory. The path we take is crawling with PSICOM troopers, Cybugs and Pantheron's. Me and Lightning takes on the enemy. I focus on the companions while Lightning takes out the troopers. The Cybugs and Pantheron's strikes me, one of them was a hard hit. Lightning finishes off the last trooper, then she shifts into Medic and casts Cure on me. When she's done healing, she shifts back into Commando and helps me finish off the enemies.

We continue down the path, cutting down any of the PSICOM troops in our way. Each battle gets hard, mostly cause their numbers are greater then before, mostly like five or six of them in each battle. But it wasn't enough to stop me and Lightning. We run up the stairs to next floor level.

At the top of the steps, we've noticed something. Three PSICOM troopers with a Shambling Cie'th. Something's strange. The troopers aren't shooting at the thing, and the Cie'th is barely even moving. Lightning and I hides by the stairs, out of sight watching.

"What's going on?" I whispered. "Why aren't they fighting?"

"A bigger question would be is why is that Cie'th doing nothing." Lightning asks.

One of the troopers takes out a control. It activates the strange chip device on the Cie'ths head. The Cie'th makes a eerie sound and stands straight...or whatever it's usual stance is. "There! The device is now working." One of the troopers says.

"Device? What are they talking about?" I whispered.

One of the troopers turns, and we were spotted. "Who's there!" The other troopers take notice of the alert. Me and Lightning comes out of hiding. The troopers and the Cie'th attacks us.

Lightning shifts into Ravager and cast her Thunder spells at the troopers. I shift into Saboteur and do Deprotect on the troopers and Shambling Cie'th. The troopers shoots at us, and the Shambling Cie'th strikes at Lightning. I shift back into Commando and start shooting at the troopers. Lightning shifts into Commando and attacks the Cie'th.

The troopers and the Cie'th falls. After battle, me and Lightning takes the moment to rest. I kneel down in front of the dead Cie'th. I noticed a small chip device on it's head. I remove it, taking a close look at this. "Hey, Light. Check this out." I stand up, Lightning stands next to me, looking at the device. "Looks like some kind of mind control chip."

Lightning takes it and takes a close look at it. "First turning people into Cie'th, now taking control of the Cie'th? What is PSICOM up to?"

"I didn't think such a thing is even possible." I say.

Lightning crushes the chip in her hands, or fingers in this case, then moves on ahead. "Let's go." Me and Lightning walks down the path. We walk up the stairs, then turn right. We run into more troopers and Cie'th on our way and we cut them down. After clearing the path, we continue on. There are two paths. We face the one that goes up to what was once Amina's Throne.

Lightning walks up that path, standing in front of the large door that's blocking our way. Lightning tries to open it, but fails. "It's locked." I stand next to her, looking up at the door. "I don't suppose you have another explosive do you?"

"I do, but I don't think it'll work." I put my hand on the wall, feeling it. "Titanium Steel. These things are near to impossible to blow open."

Lightning sighs. "Great. Now what?"

I turn to the next path, which leads us to the House of Stairs. "How about over there?"

Lightning turns her head to the path I'm pointing at. "Might as well. Better then nothing." Lightning and I take that path.

On the path, we fight the Winged Cie'th and Wisps, Cybug wasps. Me and Lightning shoots at them with my Flamestrikes and her Gunblade. The Wisps attacks me and Lightning, two with their claws and one by shooting from its stinger. The Winged Cie'th also attacked us. Lightning shifts into Medic and casts Cure on me then herself. I shifted into Saboteur and cast Deprotect on the enemies. While I'm doing that, Lightning shifted into Commando and shoots at them.

Half of the enemies were destroyed. By then, I shifted into Commando and help Lightning finish them. When the enemies are defeated, we both continued on. We stop at the center of the House of Stairs. We looked around, there's hardly any other paths to take to continue on.

I look ahead and noticed a glass tube that's green. "What's this?" I walk up the multiple stairs, with Lightning following me from behind. I approach the tube and push the button. The glass turns from green to orange. Some other glass tubes glows orange, then the floors and stairs floating around starts shifting and moving.

The floors reveal a staircase doing downwards. "A new passage." Lightning says, heading towards it. Me and Lightning runs up the stairs, then we run down the path. PSICOM soldiers and Pantheron's attacked us on this path. I take on the proto little beasts while Lightning handles the soldiers. The Pantheron's fell quickly, then I helped Lightning out with the soldiers.

After taking out the soldiers, we move on ahead. The path takes us into the Oblatorium. We start at the center area where me, Hope and Vanille got attacked by Cie'th before the l'Cie curse back on Cocoon.

"Now this place brings back memories." I say, looking around. "It's a wither bitter one since Villier's almost killed me and Vanille back then."

Lightning looks at me with concern. "What happened?"

"Eh. I came here with Hope and Vanille. We were attacked by Cie'th then that moron came in. He unleashed one of his grenades too close to Vanille's location. The girl fell and I dove in to save her." I turn to Lightning. "Wasn't a soft landing either."

"And you left Hope behind?" Lightning asks.

"Well, I wasn't planning to. I was climbing back to this place even, then the rope snapped." I say. "I was glad the kid was save with you."

Lightning smiles a little, but then a loud eerie Cie'th screech happens. Me and Lightning are on the other. Tons of Ghoul Cie'th starts stumbling out from both sides of the area. Soon enough, me and Lightning becomes surrounded.

"Huh. Just like old times." I say, taking out my bow while Lightning takes out her Gunblade.

Me and Lightning attacks the Cie'th monsters. Lightning repeatly does her Blitz ability on the Cie'ths. I shifted into Synergist and cast Haste on myself then Lightning, then I shift into Commando and join Lightning on the Blitz frenzy. Very few Ghouls survived. Those that died were replaced with more Ghouls. The survivors strikes us before me and Lightning finished them. Whenever one of us is weak, Lightning shifts into Medic and healed us, then shifts back into Commando and resumes Blitzing.

The battle was rough, but we were able to defeat them all. We take a moment to catch our breath. "Whew. That was...quite refreshing." I say. "On the bright side, none of us got blown off."

Lightning looks at all the corpses that surrounds us. "All these Cie'th...PSICOM's defiantly up to something." Lightning says.

"Whatever it is, we're gonna put an end to their little plans." I say, moving on ahead. Lightning follows me from behind.

We run down the path in the middle passage, heading towards the Sacrarium. We entered the Sacrarium, the whole area is crawling with soldiers, troopers and Cybugs.

We fight any of the enemies that got in our way. Some of them fights back. I shift into Saboteur, weakening their defenses, then to Synergist and apply Haste and Lightning and I, just to get the fights done faster.

After taking on the first wave, we continue moving our way, heading to the northern part of the area, and then take on the next wave of PSICOM enemies. I focus on the troopers and Lightning takes on the Cybugs. They weren't much of a challenge, we downed them easy. Then we continue on taking on the next wave of enemies. This one's just the Cybugs and a few Pantheron's. They are just a cake walk. We even killed them before they even had the chance to attack back.

After taking them down, we moved downwards, arriving at the point when me, Hope and Vanille crashed into the vestige. There, we're greeted by PSICOM troopers and a soldier. Lightning focuses on attacking the soldier while I take on the troopers. The troopers shoot at me, I then shift into Saboteur, casting Deprotect on them. The soldier strikes at Lightning. Lightning shoots twice then casts a Ruin spell, finishing off the soldier. I shift back into Commando and begin shooting at the troopers. In no time, they are down.

Me and Lightning walks ahead. We spotted the old Velocycle that Vanille and Hope hijacked, and that large hole in the wall we broken into. "Well, look that at." I walk up to the Velocycle, taking a good look at it. Lightning stands back, just watching me. "Even the old Velocycle's still here." I then turns m attention to the hole on then all. "I'm surprised they haven't fixed that hole."

"What's so special about that?" Lightning asks, uninterested.

I turned to facing Lightning. "If you must know, Hope and Vanille hijacked this Velocycle. It's how they ended up in this vestige in the first place."

"And you didn't stop them?" Lightning asks.

"I tried too, but they took off before I had the chance to stop them." I say. "My only opinion was to hitch a ride on them." Lightning just stares at me with a disapproval look, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Don't give me that look. I did what I could to stop them. They just didn't listen."

I move on ahead, Lightning follows me. We arrive at the small platform elevator at the end of the southern area. Me and Lightning stands on it and it goes down. We go down until we hit bottom level, then got off.

We arrive in the hallway of Torture Chambers, which is the prison hold for Cie'th. We run down the hallway, with no enemies encountered. Soon enough, we arrived at the Torture Chambers room. There, we find Cie'th and PSICOM fighting each other. Me and Lightning seems a bit surprised to see this.

"So now they're fighting each other." Lightning says.

"This is probably before they tried to mind control the Cie'th." I say. "I guess they're trying to get those things under control."

"Maybe." Lightning says, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

"Right. So what now, General? We fight them or just ignore them?" I asked.

Lightning says nothing, but we just continue on our path. We head straight, making our way to the next hallway. Few of the Cie'th and PSICOM battles ignored us, probably too focused on fighting each other to stop us. Others turned their attention and tried to stop us. When they do, we fight back. Lightning cuts them down while I watch her back and shoot at anyone or anything that tried to blind strike her.

When we defeated those monsters and troopers, we move into the next hallway. We take the zigzag stair ramp that goes on for as far as we can see. I'm guessing just as much as the elevator did.

"After a whole year, I'm surprised that nothing has changed." I say.

As we go up the stairs, we both run into a couple of Winged Cie'th and Wisps. We just can't seem to stop running into trouble, then again, what do we expect? We are members of ORPHAN. The General and the Sergeant and Shadow Hunter. Every enemy we run into, we stop in place and fight the Cie'th and Cybugs. Lightning casts her Ruin Spells while I shoot with Flamestrike. The Cybugs were cleared, now we have to deal with the Cie'th.

The Winged Cie'th strikes at us. I shoot at them, ending one of them, Lightning finishes of the other. After taking them out, we continue moving on. After moving three stories up, we run into more Cybugs and Aerial Shooters. Lightning takes care of the PSICOM shooters while I take on the Cybugs. The Aerial Shooter does rapid shooting, it maybe weak, but it hit fast and a lot.

When I finished the Cybugs, I shift into Saboteur, casing Deprotect on the Aerial Shooters. When they're defenses are weaken, Lightning finishes them with her Gunblade in gun mode.

We continue on ahead. Five more stories up the ramp stairs, we run into the Winged Cie'th. I start off with applying Deshell and Deprotect on them, while Lightning shoots at them. Half of the Cie'th were destroyed by the time I shifted into Commando. The remaining Cie'ths does Razor Wind at us. Half a dozen razors at us, which is a total of eighteen. Lightning shifts into Medic, healing the both of us. I finished off the Cie'th and we continue on.

Me and Lightning make it to the top, reaching to the entrance of Central Sanctum, which is what was the starting zone of the formerly Amina's Throne. We entered the large area. We were approaching at the sealed door that was preventing us from entering. I walk up to it.

"Let's see what we have here." I take a look at the keypad on the wall by the side of the door. I push a few keynotes and the door slides open in the end. "There. Shortcut opened."

"That'll come in handy." Lightning says. Lightning faces towards the path ahead, which is packed with PSICOM Huntress's and Officers. She looks at the door up the stairs. "The control room is probably that way."

"Let's check it out." I say.

Me and Lightning moves on ahead. PSICOM members attacked us, wave by wave. The Huntress's are fast attackers, and quite the knockouts as well. Me and Lightning can barely get the chance to attack them. *Sighs* If only I can have my Curse, Slow and Vigilance. Lightning heals us up while I shifted into Synergist and apply Haste on the both of us, then I shift into Saboteur and cast Deprotect on all. I had a bit of an interrupt before I finished then I finished my goal.

Me and Lightning shifts into Commando and strike at the Huntress's. The PSICOM officer knocks Lightning in the air with his lance. I finish of the Huntress's, by then, Lightnings back on her feet. We both attacked the officer, finishing it. That was only the beginning of the crowd of enemies we're gonna have to face before we can get to the control room.

It takes a while, and putting up a few irritations, but we've manage to defeat all the PSICOM members in the hall. Me and Lightning went up the stairs, entering Halls of Justice. The Halls of Justice isn't much, only about seven controlled Cie'th, Shamblings, and two officers.

Me and Lightning fights our way through the hallway. Lightning makes an easy kill with the Cie'th, I focus my attacks on the officers. The battles in here was much better then the ones in the Central Sanctum. I guess it's because those annoying Huntress's aren't around to interfere.

After taking out our enemies, we walk to the end of the path, approaching on the elevator. The elevator takes us to the high level. We arrive at the platform just in front of the doors to the control room. Me and Lightning just stands in place near the center of the platform. We look down at the very ground in front of us.

"This I would never forget." I say. "This is when we were all together..."

"When Serah turned to crystal." Lightning says.

Me and Lightning can just picture that moment. The both of us and Sazh found Serah on the floor. Snow showed up. When he did, she turned to crystal. Completed her Focus. It was a sad moment for all of us. Not too sad for me, for I knew that Serah turning to crystal is better then turning Cie'th. Then I would have to repeat my dark past with my father.

"That was the moment that changed our fate. That changed everything." Lightning says.

"'L'Cie who complete their focus turns to crystal and is blessed with the gift of eternity.'" I cross my arms. "Legends overcome reality."

"The moment she turned to crystal. I have lost all hope. I thought it was all over." Lightning looks down. She clinches her hand into a fist in front of her chest. "I have already lost my parents. Serah...she was my whole world. With her gone, I just..."

I put my hand on Lightnings back, earning her attention. "I know how you felt, Serah was my one and only friend back then." I give her a hard pat on the back, which made her stumble forward a little bit. "Ah! What's to worry? I mean. Everything turned out great! Serah's alive and well, got some new friends, a new family."

"Yeah. That's true." Lightning looks ahead then moves on. I followed her afterwards.

Me and Lightning enters the control room, which is formerly was once Amina's Throne. Me and Lightning walks until we arrive by the entrance. We stand quietly by the entrance, we see a researcher seating by the control panels. Behind the panels is a very large tank, which contains the dead fal'Cie, Amina. And tubes are attached to the tank and are connected to the walls, control panels and minor tanks. It's like they're draining any remaining power that's left behind the body.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"I almost looks like...they're draining the fal'Cie." Lightning says.

"But isn't that fa'Cie dead?" I asked.

"Maybe it is, but I guess that means it's powers still remain with the body." Lightning says.

"And PSICOM are draining that power into the vestige. That pretty much explains the vestige was able to turn people into Cie'th." I say.

Lightning and I faces each other then she nods. We both sneak behind the researcher. I put my hands on the chair. I turn it around, the moment I do, Lightning stabs her weapon in his chest. The researcher didn't even have a second to realize what was doing on. Me an Lightning backs away as his body drops from the chair. What I noticed was that the researcher was holding a smoothie. It looks strangely yellow. I kneel down, take a small whiff. I know that smell. Realizing it, I shot my eyes open and jump into Lightning's arms.

"Lightning!" I shout in worry.

Lightning feels disturbed seeing me like this. "It's just a spilled drink."

I face Lightning hearing that. "Oh. It's not just a spilled drink! It's pineapple!"

Lightning raises an eyebrow. "So?"

"Oh, Lightning! You know I'm dangerously allergic to pineapples! Even the slightest drop on my exposed skin will kill me!" I say. Lightning rolls her eyes, groaning in annoyance, then just drops me out of her arms. "Ow!"

Lightning looks down at me, arms crossed. "How is it that you became a member of ORPHAN?"

I look up at Lightning. "You offered me the job, last time I checked."

Lightning faces straight, realizing it. "...Oh, right." Lightning says. I stand up as Lightning sits on the chair, doing some work on the keyboard screens. "Watch my back."

I take out my bow, turning around keeping an eye out for PSICOM trouble. "Will do."

I stand guard while Lightning looks over some files. There isn't much, just some old files. Lightning finds some classified files that are loaded into a Data COM flash-drive. Lightning tries to open the files, but is locked. After failed attempts, she gets frustrated and slams her fists on the keyboard.

"Damn it! I can't open the files." Lightning says.

I turn, walk up standing next to Lightning. "Whatever's in those files, they didn't want anyone to know about it."

"Which is why they put a lock on it. It'll take some super genius to decode it." Lightning says.

"Well, if it's a super genius we need, let's give it to Hope." I say. "If anyone can decode any data lock, it's him."

Lightning nods. "You're right." Lightning ejects the Data COM and disconnects it. I take the Data COM and put it in one of my pouches. "All right, now let's blow this place up."

Just then, a loud crash and rumble happens. Me and Lightning turns, surprised. The monster is a large machinal creature on four legs, two arms on its back, one with a buzz saw for a hand and the other as a machine gun, two arms on its front with claws and two tails with laser rays on them, one for heat and one for freeze and a drill for a horn on the nose. ORPHAN Hunter X79. You could say the beast is a Final Fantasy XIII version of Materia Keeper of FFVII. [In game, this beast would also be un-staggerable]

Me and Lightning takes out our weapons, positioning ourselves to attack. "This day just keeps getting better and better, don't you think?" I ask.

"You tell me!" Lightning says.

Lightning fights the ORPHAN Hunter X79 head on. I shift into Synergist, giving me and Lightning Haste. ORPHAN Hunter X79 swipes its claws on Lightning. Lightning and I shifted into Shaman, Lightning did Sparkstrike and I did Flamestrike, and we attack ORPHAN Hunter X79. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at us with its gun arm. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on herself, then a little on me. I shift into Saboteur and cast Deprotect on the monster. Lightning shifts back into Shaman and resumes Sparkstriking.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 raises its tails over its body, aiming at me, and fires a heat beam from it's left tail at me. I shift into Commando and start shooting. Lightning shifts into Ravager and casts Thunder repeatly at the monster. ORPHAN Hunter X79 raises its front legs, and repeatly stomps them on Lightning, knocking the girl down and crushing her.

Lightning's at near death. I have decided to use a potion to heal her. After using the potion, I resume shooting. Lightning gets back on her feet and casts Thunder. ORPHAN Hunter X79 makes its way to me. Its horn spins and then impales it at me. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on me, then shifts into Commando and start attacking.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 statics and malfunctions, then collapses and shuts down. After that fight, Lightning and I put our weapons away. "Man, that was almost too easy." I say. I turn to face Lightning. "Let's blow this place sky high and get out."

Lightning nods. "Right."

Lightning approaches to the control panel. She does some work, activating the self-destruct. When she does, red lights flash, a loud alarming noise going on. A computer voice echoes through the Vestige.

"WARNING! WARNING! SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED! THIRTY MINUTES (30:00) UNTIL DETONATION!"

When Lightning was done, she turns. "Let's go."

I nod, and we head out the door.

[In game, this event is where you have to reach your goal under a time limit. The countdown also happens through battle, you could say you'll have to go through the battles fast. Oh, and there's also no escaping from battle. The time would also fly by when your in the menu, so if you want to adjust equipment and items and such, do it fast.]

Me and Lightning rushes out of the control room, arriving at the platform in the Halls of Justice. When we're at the center, we hear something coming after us. We stopped, and look around. "What was that?" I ask.

Lightning slowly turns to the entrance of the Control Room. "That sounds like..."

There was pause on Lightning's sentence. Just then, an explosion happens at the entrance. Me and Lightning takes cover, resisting the force and smoke. When the smoke begins to clear, we look. To our surprise, it's the ORPHAN Hunter X79.

"WHAT THE HECK!?" I yelled, defiantly surprised. "I thought we totaled that thing!"

ORPHAN Hunter X79 leaps and lands right in front of us on the platform. Lightning scoffs as she and I takes out our weapons. "Then let's send this thing into the junkyard!"

Lightning charges at ORPHAN Hunter X79. I stand back and start shooting it with Flamestrike. ORPHAN Hunter X79 impales its horn at Lightning. I shift into Saboteur, casing Deshell and Deprotect on the machine. Lightning shifts into Shaman, doing Sparkstrike. I shift into Synergist, casting Haste on myself then Lightning. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at me and Lightning.

Lightning falls unconscious from the shooting. I take out a Phoenix Down and use it on Lightning, reviving her, then I reapply Haste on her. ORPHAN Hunter X79 makes its way towards me, and swipes its claws at me. I shift into Shaman, doing Flamestrike. Lightning shifts into Commando, casting her Ruin spells on the machine. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at me. I shift into Commando and start shooting.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 collapses on the ground. Me and Lightning takes a close look at the machine, making sure it's taken care of. To our curiosity, ORPHAN Hunter X79 takes out its repair wards and starts doing some repairing.

I was surprised to see this. "This thing...it's self-repairing!"

Me and Lightning looks up as we hear the warning computer voice.

"SELF-DESTRUCT IN TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES! (25:00)"

Lightning and I looks back at ORPHAN Hunter X79. "We don't have time to this. Forget the machine! We need to get out of here!"

I nod. "Right!" Me and Lightning puts away our weapons. We didn't bother taking the elevator, so we just jumped over it, landing on the hallway below, then we start running away.

The pathway is clear since we defeated all the enemies on the way. We arrive at the Sanctum Central. ORPHAN Hunter X79 is on our tail. The war machine arrives at the area when me and Lightning are halfway through the room. ORPHAN Hunter X79 leaps high and lands right in front of us. Me and Lightning breaks, stopping in place. ORPHAN Hunter X79 turns to face us.

Me and Lightning takes out our weapons for battle. I start off by shifting into Synergist, giving me and Lightning Haste. Lightning strikes at ORPHAN Hunter X79. ORPHAN Hunter X79 makes it way towards me. I shift into Saboteur, only when I do, it stomps on me repeatly. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on me. I get back on my feet, then cast Deprotect on ORPHAN Hunter X79.

Lightning shifts into Shaman, doing Sparkstrike. ORPHAN Hunter X79 raises its tail over its body, shooting heat and freeze beams through it's tails. I shift into Commando, shooting at ORPHAN Hunter X79. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at me. Lightning shifts into Medic, heals me with Cure, then shifts into Commando and shoots at it.

Me and Lightning attacks the war machine. ORPHAN Hunter X79 swipes its claws, hitting both of us, then it falls. We defeated it...for now. But it didn't matter. As soon as it collapses, we make a run for it.

Me and Lightning arrives at the Ambulatory. We hurry down the stairs, turning left, making the passage towards the exit. We rush down the first set of stairs, down below, we can see the exit.

"There's the exit! Hurry!" Lightning says.

Me and Lightning rushes down the stairs, making a sprint to the exit.

"SELF-DESTRUCT IN TWENTY MINUTES! (20:00)"

Me and Lightning are halfway to the exit, then missiles are launched. The missiles flies over us and hits the wall above the exit. The explosion causes large piles of metal to fall and land in the exit, blocking it. Me and Lightning stops seeing that situation. "What the?" Me and Lightning turns to see it's ORPHAN Hunter X79, it's claws out and open. It launched the missiles from the launchers in its claws. "Are you kidding me!?" I shout.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 leaps and lands in front of the stairs. Me and Lightning takes out our weapons, facing the machine...again.

I shift into Saboteur, casting Deprotect and Deshell. Lightning casts her Ruin spells at ORPHAN Hunter X79. Lightning switches to shooting with her weapon. ORPHAN Hunter X79 strikes Lightning with it's buzz arm. I shift into Synergist, casting Haste on myself then Lightning. ORPHAN Hunter X79 launches its missiles at us. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on herself.

I shift into Shaman, doing Flamestrike at ORPHAN Hunter X79. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at me. Lightning casts Cure on me, then shifts into Ravager and then casts Thunder. The fight goes on, and ORPHAN Hunter X79 is really getting on our nerves. We both shift into Commando and I shoot and Lightning strikes at it. ORPHAN Hunter X79 raises its tail over it's body and shoots its lasers at us.

Me and Lightning kept hitting hard on the war machine, until it falls. When it does, me and Lightning takes a moment to recover our strength. We both turn to the blocked exit, looking at it. "Well, now what?" I asked.

"We could stay here if getting blown to bits sounds better." Lightning says. I can hear that sarcasm in her tone.

I snap my fingers. "I got it!" Lightning looks at me curious. "The Sacrarium. It still has that hole in the wall from the crash a year ago. We can escape from there."

"Well, it's the only opinion we have left. Let's hurry." Me and Lightning runs past the ORPHAN Hunter X79, which is beginning it's self-repair. Me and Lightning runs up the stairs, pass the small area, up the second set of stairs, and we take the path towards House of Stairs.

"SELF DESTRUCT IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! (15:00)"

Me and Lightning arrives at the House of Stairs, with ORPHAN Hunter X79 right on our tail. We didn't bother to look back to see how close it is from us. ORPHAN Hunter X79 leaps pass and lands right in front of us, in the center of the House of Stairs.

Me and Lightning takes out our weapons. "Out of the way!" Lightning yells at it.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 makes the first strike this time. It stomps its front legs on Lightning repeatly. I shift into Synergist, casting Haste on myself then Lightning. Lightning gets back on her feet. First thing she does is she swifts into Medic, casting Cure on herself. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at me. I shift into Saboteur, casting Deprotect on it. Lightning shifts into Shaman, doing Sparkstrikes. I shift into Shaman as well, doing Flamestrikes.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 swipes its claws at us, then uses its buzz arm on me. Me and Lightning strikes at ORPHAN Hunter X79. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots its freeze and heat lasers at us. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on the both of us. When she's done, we both shift into Commando, and introduced this ORPHAN Hunter X79 into a world of pain.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 collapses and begins to repair itself. As it does, me and Lightning makes a run for it. We run down the path that leads to the Oblatorium. As we run, we hear the computer voice.

"SELF DESTRUCT IN TEN MINUTES! (10:00)"

"I really wish we would have disabled that computer voice before we left the control room! Cause it's really not helping our case!" I say.

"Shut up and just keep running!" Lightning says.

We arrive at the Oblatorium, where the center circle is crowded with Ghoul Cie'th. Me and Lightning stops, taking out our weapons. "Just what we need. Can it get any worse?" I asked.

Just then, ORPHAN Hunter X79 lands right on top of the Cie'th, crushing them, but also getting ready to attack us. Lightning turns her head to face me. "You had to ask?" Lightning says in an irritated tone.

Me and Lightning returns our attention to the OPRHAN Hunter X79 and attack it. Lightning strikes and I do my Flamestrike. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at Lightning. I shift into Saboteur, casting Deprotect and Deshell. Lightning shifts into Ravager, casting Thunder. ORPHAN Hunter X79 stomps hard and repeatly at Lightning. I shift into Synergist, casting Haste on myself and Lightning.

Lightning gets back on her feet, shifting into Medic and healing herself. ORPHAN Hunter X79 strikes at me with its buzz arm. Lightning shifts into Shaman doing Sparkstrikes. I shift into Commando, shooting my arrows. ORPHAN Hunter X79 launches its missiles at us. Lightning shifts into Commando, casting a Ruin spell then strikes at ORPHAN Hunter X79.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 collapses, then begins repairing.

"SELF-DESTRUCT IN FIVE MINUTES! (5:00)"

Me and Lightning are on the alert hearing that. "Come on!" Lightning says, running.

Me and Lightning runs off. ORPHAN Hunter X79 finishes its repairing and chases after us. Me and Lightning arrives at the Sacrarium. Me and Lightning arrives at the middle area. We're about to take the path that'll lead us to our only exit, then ORPHAN Hunter X79 jumps in our way.

"Okay! Now I'm getting mad!" I say.

We make our final fight, I'm hoping it's our final fight, against the machine. ORPHAN Hunter X79 makes the first strike by swiping its claws at us. Me and Lightning are both in Shaman and we attack with Sparkstrike and Flamestrike. ORPHAN Hunter X79 impales its drill horn on me. I fall unconscious. Lightning uses a Phoenix Down to revive me. I shift into Saboteur, casting Deprotect on the machine.

ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots at Lightning. I shift into Synergist, casting Haste on me and Lightning, then I shift into Shaman and continue doing Flamestrikes. ORPHAN Hunter X79 stomps repeatly on me. Lightning shifts into Medic, casting Cure on me, then a little on herself. ORPHAN Hunter X79 slashes its buzz arm on Lightning. Lightning shifts into Ravager, casting Thunder.

I shift into Commando, shooting. ORPHAN Hunter X79 shoots freeze and heat lasers from its tails. Lightning shifts into Commando, attacking. ORPHAN Hunter X79 Collapses, and begins repairing.

"Let's go!" I shout!

[Crystarium extended - Stage 2]

Me and Lightning makes a run for it. We run down our path, making our way towards the hole. ORPHAN Hunter X79 finishes its repair, getting back on its legs. Me and Lightning are near to the hole, Lightning is ahead of me. She's already by the hole. She stops to look back at me. I make a run for it as ORPHAN Hunter X79 chases after me. It stops, aims its gun arm at me, shooting.

"Look out!" Lightning takes out her Gunblade, in gun mode, and start shooting back at the monster.

"SELF DESTRUCT IN TEN SECONDS!"

The Computer Voice begins the final countdown. Lightning's shooting only slowed down the ORPHAN Hunter X79 a bit. I made it to our exit and jump, with Lightning joining me shortly afterwards. Our little exit is just a hundred foot drop over the cliff. ORPHAN Hunter X79 just stops on the edge of the exit, looking down, watching me and Lightning fall to our escape.

"FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE..."

The PSICOM vestige unleashes a massive explosion.

Me and Lightning dives deep, the wave force from the explosion barely reached us. Lightning and I spreads our arms and legs, falling stomach first, to reduce our falling speed. We fall near to the cliff, when we do, we switch to falling feet first. We slowly fall closer to the ground of the cliff, and soon landed on our feet at a soft impale, sliding down at high speed as soon as we do.

We slide down the hills until we reach the ground level. We then look up, watching the PSICOM Vestige engulfed in flames. "Well. I'd say mission accomplished." I say.

Lightning crosses her arms in front of her chest. "It could have gone better."

"Hmm...no argument there. I blame that war machine that was chasing us." I say. I stretch my arms in the air. "Well...I don't know about you, but that chase worn me out."

Lightning turns to me. "You saying we call it a day? We have to take the Data COM to headquarters."

"Lightning. It's the New Year's! We went on this mission and that was gonna be it. So the Data COM can wait for just one little day." I say. "Besides, Serah's expecting us right after this mission. Did you forget how she reacted when she heard about this mission?"

Lightning thinks back. This morning, Primarch Raines called us for this mission. When Serah found out, she begged us to postpone it. Cause she wants us to spent the day together as a family.

Lightning sighs, crosses her arms. "All right. Fine."

"I thought so." I say.

I take out a chocobo whistle. I blow it, which sends out a high-pitched chocobo call. It's barely heard for us humans. A minute later, Snowflake arrives. I hop on the Chocobo, then Lightning sits behind me. I grab on the reins, give a gentle whip. "Hyah!"

Snowflake runs through the field. As we leave, Caius stands on one of the small cliffs on the hill. Next to him is some hooded figure with a PSICOM badge, used to button the cloak on the chest.

"You see them? Those are the enemy that dares to stand in our way." The figure says.

Caius sets his eyes on us as we fade away from his sight. "So those are the ones who want to interfere with my mission."

"That is right, Caius." The figure says. "Follow them, and destroy them."

Caius turns so he's facing the figure. "I shall, director. I'll do whatever it takes to save Yeul."

Caius puts a hand on his chest. His l'Cie brand, which is the mark of a Cocoon l'Cie, glows on his chest. A purple outlined eye crystal appears in his hand. Caius crushes it in his hand, then throws it in the air as the sphere starts to form. The sphere explodes, revealing Chaos Bahamut. Chaos Bahamut appears in his air glide form. The eidolon soars through the sky. Caius jumps onto Chaos Bahamut when it flies close, then it goes after me and Lightning.

The PSICOM director stands back and watch. She smiles and gives a single chuckle in amusement.


	4. New Bodhum part I

A/N: The PSICOM Vestige was pretty crazy, wasn't it? The ORPHAN Hunter X79 battle event would be quite amusing if it were game played, wouldn't it? Can't you just picture it? We now move on to New Bodhum. This is part I of the story where we now check out the rest of the gang.

Chapter 2: New Bodhum

* * *

><p>Snowflake starts walking down the path on the fields of Gran Pulse. It's evening and the sun is nearly beginning to set. I wonder how Serah will react when we return home? By now, she's probably having her New Years feast cooking already. It's not exactly New Year's, the one in Winter. However, it has been exactly one year since Cocoon's Fall. Because of the fall, we now created a new home in a new world. So every year, we've decided to celebrate the fall. And since it involves creating and living in a new world, we've decided to make it New Years.<p>

Snowflake walks into a cave which leads us to the cove. When we step back into the sunlight, we look at New Bodhum, which is a large village, just like how it was back on Cocoon. All protected inside a barrier globe that keeps wildlife out.

Snowflake walks through the barrier, the three of us just goes through it like it was a bubble. When we're inside, me and Lightning dismounts from Snowflake. We look back, to see the monsters have followed us, two beasts and a Behemoth. They leap towards us, but the barrier repels them. The monsters get knocked back, then they charge again and attack the barrier, which has no effect at all to their attacks.

"You'd think they would have learned by now." I say.

"You would think PSICOM would learn a thing or two from Hope and the other researchers." Lightning says.

"No fooling." I say.

Me and Lightning goes for a little stroll around town. We figured a little sight seeing wouldn't hurt. Surely Serah wouldn't mind. We soon went our separate ways. I stopped by the jewelry store to do a little business.

[In most towns, there are going to be vendors where you get your equipment, such as weapons, armors and accessories, and items like you do in Lightning Returns. There well also be a Forge vendor where you could level up your equipment, but that'll be currently locked for a few chapters.

Other thing about these towns. During non-invasion or non-assault events, random monsters would just spawn out of no where, like how they did in the original Final Fantasy XIII-2. You know, just to help people keep their characters worked up and stuff like that.]

Meanwhile, a figure enters the city of New Bodhum. Noel Kreiss.

Noel is wearing a black V-neck top with tribal patterns and a pair of angel wings on the back, along with a simple pendant. A leather bracer on his left arm, a ring on his right hand, and wraps his right arm with cord. Large blue sirwal-style trousers with decorated hems, and low-cut sandal-like leather boots. A green pouch and hunter's knife are attached to his belt in the back, which itself is adorned with small lavender ties made of cloth. Under the angel wings on the back of Noel's top and on his dagger, there are lines of Etro script.

He's also wearing a black hooded cloak.

Noel is right now traveling around Gran Pulse. He has been asleep for hundreds of years in a crystal slumber, along with his friends Yeul and Caius. And now he's goes in search for them. Noel walks up to the NORA cafe, the place is a bit packed. He can hardly find a seat. He sits on the stool by the counter.

Noel just sits there, thinking and looking at the menu that lays on the table in front of him. "Hey buddy!" A man next to Noel gives him a hard slap on the back, which startles the young hunter. The man looks very drunk, and there are over dozens of empty glasses right on his part of the table. "You're not from here, are you?"

"Uh..." Noel just feels a bit weirded out, for the man is very strange looking. Mostly cause of being drunk. "No."

The man wraps an arm around Noel. "Well! Let me tell you something! The waitress who works here! She's very sexy!" Noel feels a bit disturbed about this. If it were me, I'd feel completely disturbed. "Over there!" The man turns Noel's attention to Lebreau, who's serving drinks to everyone else throughout the body. "She looks soooo good. Hmm-hmm. Papa likes."

Lebreau turns to the counter with an empty tray. "Excuse me, waitress!" Lebreau looks up at the drunk man. "I'll have another."

"Sir. You'd already had fifteen glasses." Lebreau says.

"Oh fiddlesticks! If I say I want another glass of wine! Then I'll have another glass of wine!" The man protests.

Lebreau sighs. "All right. If you insist." Lebreau fills a glass with wine and hands it to the man. "Here you go, sir."

The man smiles. He drinks while tiling his head back, but he goes too far and loses conscious. The man falls back and out of his seat. Noel looks back and down at the man, concern, then turns his attention back to Lebreau. "Is he okay?"

Lebreau smiles. "It's fine. This happens a lot. Well, welcome to the NORA cafe. How can I help you?"

Noel looks down at the menu, then holds it up in front of him. Noel looks over the menu, wondering what to get, then made his decision. "I'll...have this Tropical Hawaiian Shake."

"Coming right up, sir." Lebreau moves to the back, getting to work on Noel's order.

Noel just sits by, waiting. While he does, he looks around, just watching all the strange people around him, chatting, laughing and smiling. He hardly seen anything like this during his travels.

Lebreau returns with his drink. "Here you go, sir."

Noel takes a sip of his beverage. "This is really good."

"Thank you. It's our speciality." Lebreau says. "Hey, I've never seen you around here. Where you from?"

Noel was silent at first, then speaks. "Somewhere far away."

"I see. What brings you to New Bodhum?" Lebreau asks.

"I'm just looking for my friends." Noel says.

"Well, I hope you'll find them soon enough." Lebreau starts wiping down the counter. "So, you staying for the New Year's celebration tonight?"

Noel seems confused. To him, it's not really New Years day. Then again, he's completely unaware of what we Cocoon citizens have been through with the fall of Cocoon. So he just goes with it...sort of.

"I can't. I should be moving on." Noel says.

"Well, why don't you stay for the night. Won't hurt yea." Lebreau says. "Oh, you should defiantly stay for the fireworks tonight. You don't want to miss that, especially since their wish granting fireworks."

Noel seems a bit amused. "I'll...consider it." Noel says. "Wait. What do you mean 'Wish granting fireworks'?"

"Well, when you make a wish on a firework, it'll come true." Lebreau says.

Noel was silent, just takes a sip of his drink.

I start walking down the streets, with a bouquet filled with few roses, black-eyed susans, daffodils and lilac. It's New Years and people often place flowers on the memorial fountain for the dead. These four types flowers were my mothers favorite and I decided to place them on the fountain, to honor her sacrifice for my life. Me and Snowflake arrived at the fountain, where we find a bunch of children gathering around it, who are also placing their flowers around the plaque, all though they'd leave the in front of the plaque open for people to stand and read the inscription.

"What are you doing here?" I turn to see Lightning approaching me. "Here to talk to your parents?"

"Not exactly." I hold up the flowers up in front of Lightning. "I'm giving flowers for my mother."

Lightning takes one of the roses, looking right at it. "I see."

"All of these were her favorite." I say.

Lightning takes a look at the whole bouquet. "They all look like the ones you grow around the house. Is that why you make a garden filled with these?" Lightning gives back the one rose she was holding.

When we had our mansion, I had decided to grow these flowers all around the house, just a way of making a memorial for my mother. I guess I would also include my father since he use to do this soon after his wife's death. I decided to do it for the both of them.

"Sort of. You see, my mother was a gardener. She loved to plant flowers, for herself and others. She even ran her own gardening company called 'Grow in Peace'." I say.

Lightning looks at me, surprised. "Grow in Peace? Your mother made that company?" I nodded. "My mother use to buy flowers from them."

Now I'm surprised to hear that. "Really? Huh, what a small world." The line starts moving, and so do I and Lightning. "After my mothers death, my father decided to grow these flowers all over our house, as a memorial for her."

"Your dad was a gardener too?" Lightning asks.

"Not really. He's not fond with gardening...in fact, he's actually allergic to the pollen." Lightning gives a wooden look with a raised eyebrow, like she's thinking. 'why the heck would do that?'

"Your dad risked allergies just to carry on your mothers memorial garden?" Lightning asks.

"I know. I always thought he's crazy for doing that." I say.

I was now in front of my fountain. I kneel down and lay my flowers down with the others. "Have you always done this memorial garden back on Cocoon?"

I stand back up, me and Lightning move aside so other people can do their offering. "Not really. I was so overwhelmed with guilt and despair, I didn't feel worthy of carrying on my fathers tradition. Even if I did, I wouldn't bother since my place was kind of a dump."

Lightning thinks back to when we went to my place after the fall. Besides the place being trashed from the crystal, she can tell it wasn't a nice place. Just a small house that can only room for two! The only other room there ever was in it was the bathroom.

"Well, you might have a point. Wait, your parents lived in that place? It seemed pretty small for them and you." Lightning says.

"Oh no. That wasn't they house I grew up in." I say. "I left that house cause I couldn't live in it anymore."

"Because of your father?" Lightning says.

"You know me so well, Farron." I say with a smile.

After our small conversation back there, we headed for our home. Behind the fountain, we took the path that leads to the stairs, which leads to the plateau. On the top, we've arrived at the gates. Me and Lightning opens the gates, entering the courtyard of our large mansion.

We both stopped by the stables to place Snowflake in. I take a beg of gysahl greens, pour some right on the floor in her stall. Snowflakes kwehs and starts eating. I smile and give a small chuckle seeing her. I put the beg away so I could give the chocobo and pet on the back.

"You are a good girl, you know that?" I tell Snowflake.

Lightning just stands back, leaning against a pillar that's holding the stables roof, arms crossed. Lightning turns her attention to the front door of the house, then turns back to me. "You coming in?"

"Later. Need to take care a few things first." I say.

"All right, then." Lightning makes her leave from the stables.

As she walks, her pace slows a bit and she looks down at the garden of flowers in front of the mansion walls. Lightning thinks about what I told her about what my father did after my mothers death. She never imagined herself or anyone of doing such a thing for their parents. Then again, she thinks if they would if their parents were gardeners.

Lightning arrives at the door. She opens it then walks right in, closing the door behind her. "Welcome home, Light."

Lightning looks up to see that voice came from Hope Esithem. Hope's outfit are long green pants, goes down his ankles this time, gray shirt and white long sleeve jacket, a dark green shoulder pauldron with a single yellow highlight on his left shoulder, without gloves, black neckerchief, a satchel resting on his right with its strap hanging from his left shoulder, black boots. With his mothers golden necklace with a rhombus shaped sapphire pendant.

"Hi, Hope." Is all Lightning says to the boy.

Serah comes in from the kitchen. "Lightning!" Serah's outfit, her's is the one she wears in the FFXIII-2 game known as "Summoner's Garb" (Don't really know how to describe it exactly) with her crystal tear within her engaged necklace. The girl is also wearing a messy apron, she's currently working on dinner.

Serah rushes up to her sister and hugs her. "You're home! I missed you."

Lightning's just wide eyed, she's not really shocked nor irritated. "Serah, I was only gone for a few hours."

"I know. I was just worried." Serah disbands the hug. "Where's Patrick?"

"He's outside, just taking care of a few things." Lightning says.

Snow also arrives from where Serah came in. Snow's outfit are black trousers, red shirt, black trench coat that's torn on the end, black and silver boots, black gloves and wearing his old bandana cap.

"Hey, sis." Snow says in a greet.

"I'm not your sister." Lightning says, giving him an irritated tone and stare.

"Hey, take it easy, Light." Snow says.

"I let you marry my sister, didn't I?" Lightning says. There was silence for a moment, then Lightning says and heads for the living room. "I'm sorry. I just had a rough day."

Serah, Hope and Snow follows Lightning. The soldier girl crashes on the chair. "What happened on your mission?" Hope asked.

Lightning groans. "I was knocked off the PSICOM train, had to fight my way through the vestige against PSICOM troopers, robotic creatures, monstrous Cie'th. Don't even get me started on those Huntresses in the Central Sanctum, they're the worst." Hope and Serah are taking in everything Lightning's saying. They, mostly Hope, can really imagine what she's been through. "I'm not even gonna bring up my partner jumping into my arms afraid."

Hope and Serah are confused and disturbed to hear that. They looked at each other, exchanging looks, then back at Lightning. "That doesn't sound like Patrick. What happened?"

"Ah, we killed some researcher in the control and he happened to be holding some beverage that apparently is pineapple." Lightning says.

Hope and Serah are completely shocked to hear that. Both of them even said 'What?' at the same time. "Lightning. You know he's dangerously allergic to pineapples!" Serah says.

"I know he is. But still, it's no reason to be scared like a child and jump into my arms." Lightning says.

Snow on the other hand is confused. "Wait. What happens when Patrick has pineapple?"

"He swells up, breaks down in hives and he can't breath." Serah says. "Even just touching it and he'll go into reaction."

"Yeah, well. It's not as bad as what happened next." Lightning says, earning Hope's and Serah's attention again. "When we activated the self-destruct, some giant war machine came out of no where and attacked us. After we defeated it, it repaired itself and chased after us. We fought that thing several times. Barely made it out with a couple of seconds to spare."

"Wow. Sounds tough." Snow says.

Lightning groans, she moves her hand to the back of her neck, rubbing it wither poor. "You okay?" Hope asks.

"Yeah. Just got this aching feeling." Lightning says.

Hope moves to behind the chair Lightning's sitting on. "Here. Let me help."

"Thanks, Hope. But I don't need any-" Hope starts rubbing his hands on Lightning's neck. Just like that, the girl subdues. "Oh...oh." Lightning starts to relax. "Oh...that feels good."

"Hey, Serah!" Serah turns to see Fang entering the living room, who's still wearing her Yun clan outfit. Vanille and Sazh are also still wearing their outfits from a year ago. (They're not really in view, but I thought you guys should know) "You gonna help me and Vanille out or are we gonna finish the cooking ourselves?"

"Oh! Right!" Serah hurries back into the kitchen with Fang.

I open the door, walking right in. I make my way to the living room, seeing Hope behind Lightning giving her a neck and shoulder rub. "Well. That's something you don't see everyday." I say.

Hope and Lightning turns to face me. Hope seems nervous then retreats his hands from Lightning. "Nothing...nothing's happening." Hope says.

"Right." I walk to Hope. "Hope. We need a favor from yea." I reach into my beg, taking out the Data COM. "This flash drive was from the control room. We believe it contains valuable data from PSICOM. But it's locked like a bank vault."

"And you want me to decode it?" Hope asks. I nod, and Hope takes the Data COM. "All right. I'll take this to the headquarters tomorrow."

I turn and make my leave. "Hey, Patrick." Snow says.

I just turn my head over my shoulder, looking at him giving him a cold glare. "Snow." My tone was cold as well, but I keep on moving.

Snow turns to Lightning and Hope. "I think he's starting to warm up on me."

"Keep dreaming." Lightning says.

Outside in the city, Noel goes for a walk down the streets. He's still trying to adjust to the sudden new village in Gran Pulse. Noel gets some strange looks from the people he walks by. They have never seen anyone like him around. They even mutter about him. Noel rolls his eyes at the citizens, but still moving.

Noel arrives at the Central Plaza, where he spots the large memorial fountain. "Huh. So this is must be the memorial statue." Noel stands in front of the plaque, just looking up at the statute of the crystalized Cocoon. Noel looks down, seeing the plaque. He kneels down to read it. Noel just mutters through the words, then speaks out loud. "'The heroes of Cocoon' Huh?" Noel stands up, looking up at the pillar statue. "Cocoon...why does that sound familiar?"

"It's so beautiful, isn't it?" Noel turns to see a lady looking up at the statue.

"Uh...sure." Noel says. "Hey, what's with this...statue?"

"It's a memorial for the fall of Cocoon." The lady says. "Last year, a group of l'Cie attacked our home world. We all feared them cause they were made to destroy Cocoon. But instead, they saved it from its own destruction."

"Right...So...you're all...Cocoon people?" Noel asks. The lady nods. "Are there any people who are from Pulse? Anyone?"

The lady thinks for a moment, looking up at the crystal fountain. "Hmm...I think Vanille and Fang are. Other then that...nope." The lady walks off.

Noel was silent. He looks up at the pillar on the fountain. "Yeul...it seems we're the last people on Gran Pulse." Noel turns around, looking at the people walking around. "They don't seem like a threat...can we really trust these Cocoon people?" Noel is silent for a moment, he looks back at the statue as if he's expecting an answer. "I wish Caius was here to help us out." Noel crosses his arms and look down. "What's happening with him?"

Back at the mansion, we all sat on the table, dinning on the feast the girls, minus Lightning, had prepared. Just some Behemoth Meatloaf, Sahagin Stew, fruit salad and pineapple stuffing, and a small bit of just regular stuffing for me. It wasn't easy for Serah to cook for nine people, would have been thirteen, but the NORA gang had to work late at the NORA shop, and they also decided to have dinner there.

In the end, we're all stuffed, sighing in relief at the delicious meal. "Oh Serah. That was delicious." Snow says.

"Indeed it is. You have out done yourself." I say.

Serah smiles, turns her head to facing Vanille and Fang, who's sitting together at the end of the table. "Well. I can't take all the credit."

Vanille giggles, Fang just smirks. "Man, how time flies. I can't believe it's been a whole year." Sazh says.

"I know." Hope says. "It seems just like yesterday, Serah and Dajh were in crystal while the rest of us are wanted fugitives."

"And here we are, all together." Vanille adds.

Hope nods at Vanille. "That's right."

Serah stands up. "Well, time to do the dishes." Serah gathers the empty dishes around the table.

Hope stands up and gathers some as well. "I'll help."

I stand up, heading for the exit. "I'm off to tend the garden." Vanille stands up and heads for the exit with me. The girl didn't say much. I know she's following me but don't bother with it or anything. Everyone else just stayed at the table.

Serah and Hope carries the dishes to the sink. There are two kitchen sinks, side by side with each other. Serah does the dishes on the left sink and Hope does dishes in the right. Hope and Serah does the dishes for a while. Hope stops for a moment then turns his head to face Serah. "Hey, Serah." Serah gives Hope her attention. "Uh...I wanna ask you something?"

Serah sets the dishes down, looking surprised. "Me? ...Why me?"

"What do you mean?" Hope asks.

"It's just that, whenever you need help with anything, you always went to my sister. I'm surprised you came to me." Serah says.

"Well, I don't think Lightning can really help me with this one." Hope says.

"Really? What's it about?" Serah asks.

Hope holds his hands together, looking pretty shy. "Uh...it's about this girl."

Serah gasps. Instantly, she grabs Hopes shoulders and pulls him close to her, she's in his face. "Tell me everything!" Serah's tone was over excited.

Hope is wide eyed, look both shocked and horrified. He's not really scared, but wasn't expecting this reaction from Serah. "Uh...well, she's really nice. And pretty. And...she's also a close friend of mine."

Serah nods at every compliment he makes of this girl, to encourage him to continue. "Well who is she?"

Hope takes a step back. "I-I can't really say who she is."

"Oh? Well, have you told her how you feel?" Serah asks.

Hope looks down and away in shame. "Uh...that's the problem." Serah tilts her head to the side. "I don't really know how to tell...how I feel. I'm afraid...she wouldn't like me back." Hope looks back at Serah. "What should I do?"

Serah chuckles a little. "Oh, Hope. Don't be so shy." Serah gives Hope a playful shove on the shoulder. "Just be honest and tell her."

Hope seems very unsure. "Are you sure?"

"Of course. You're a nice guy." Serah holds her hands behind her back. "So sweet, kind, helpful." Serah blushes a little at her next comment. "Cute too..." Hope can feel himself nervous hearing that, not in a fear way. "You're also very mature for your age. Any girl would be lucky to have you."

"Well...thank you, Serah." Hope says. "But...I'm still not sure."

Serah puts her hands on Hopes shoulder, making him look at her in the eyes. "Trust me, Hope. Just walk up to her and say it. Oh, and maybe bring her some flowers. It's the best way to start up the conversation."

Hope nods and smiles. "Okay. I'll do it."

Meanwhile, I'm standing outside, on my knees taking care of the flowers in the garden. Vanille walks up to me, hands behind her back. She looks at the row of flowers.

"It's all so pretty." Vanille says.

"Yeah. My mother had a unique taste in flowers." I say, earning a giggle from Vanille.

Vanille sits down beside me, knees up and arms wrapped around her legs. She just sits there, watching me. I stand up, getting the water can. I return to the flowers, pour some water in the flowers.

"Hey, Patrick?" I turn to look at Vanille. "Um...I was wondering. What's your mother like?"

I raise an eyebrow hearing that. "My mother?"

"Yep. You hardly ever talked about her." Vanille says. "All I know about her is that necklace your wearing." Vanille points at the necklace around my neck. I grab the diamond heart as she does, then return my attention to the flowers. Vanilles smile disappears, titles her head in confusion. "Your mother...her fate...wasn't as bad as your fathers was it..." Vanille seems horrified. "Or worse."

I chuckled hearing that. "Trust me, Vanille. Nothing's worse then murdering my own father." I say. "Anyways, my mother died during a Purge that happened sixteen years ago. As for your question about her..." I look up, thinking. Nothing came to thought. "I don't really remember much about her. I was too young to remember. I do remember that she was always free-spirited." I look at Vanille with a small smile. "Kind of like you. Only...just not crazy like you."

Vanille smiles, eyes sparkling. "Really..." Then that smile disappears with disappointment. "Hey!"

I chuckled, returning my attention back to the flowers. "So far, all I remember was the stuff my father told me. That she use to be a gardener and all that."

"Is that way you're making a garden for the house? For your mother?" Vanille says.

"Hmm...well, sort of. You see, my father actually did this as a memorial for my mother soon after she died. I'm just carrying on his tradition." I say.

"I think that's very sweet." Vanille says. Vanille helps me out tending to the flowers.

The next two hours have passed. Nothing much has happened, but everyone is getting ready for the New Years Fireworks. There's a small island in the middle of the sea where the fireworks are going to be. People usually sits by the shores, at the edge of the piers or on the cliffs of the cove to watch the fireworks. The one thing that's special about this event is that we Heroes of Cocoon didn't have to do anything particular or special. Usually someone big and power would have to do something special, but not for us. We get to set back and relax like everyone else is on New Years.

We all left the house and went our separate ways. Hope went to the flower shop, one of the "Grow in Peace" stores. Hope bought about a bouquet of roses, in each color there was. Hope leaves the store. He stops by the door, takes a deep breath through the nose then exhales from the mouth.

"Okay. Remember what Serah said. You can do this." Hope walks off.

Fang and I hang out by the NORA cafe. We sit in front of each other on the booth, waiting for our beverages.

"Yeah, well. It's too bad you're no longer a Mercenary." Fang says.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Ah, well. I could have used an extra hand on my hunting job. We ran into some crazy monsters, nearly turned us into dinner." Fang says.

I was silent for a moment, only raised an eyebrow. "Right. Well sorry to spoil your little request for help. But I'm a member of ORPHAN now."

"I'm well aware of that." Fang leans her head towards me. "Maybe you could use the money to pay me back that Velocycle you stoled from me."

"Yeah. I'll get to that once we start making those things again." I say with a slight sarcasm. "We're probably far beyond that. Even ORPHAN Inc. is still under construction."

"And yet you and Lightning and Hope are using that building." Fang says.

"Only the first ten floors. The rest are still either under construction or too close to the construction." I say.

"What's wrong with the floors that are too close to construction?" Fang asks.

I look irritated hearing that. Isn't the answer obvious enough? "Too loud for thinking or concentrating and half of the researchers and soldiers were sent to the hospital."

Fang sits back and chuckles. "Bunch of crybabies if you ask me."

I give a low growl, looking down. Just then, Lebreau arrives with our drinks. She hands them to us then walks off. I take a quiet sip. Fang just holds her cup. "So. You're doing better at accepting that Serah's marrying Snow."

I give a bit of a bitter look hearing that. "Yeah, well. I'm not proud of it. I'm still surprised that Lightning's accepting that idiot to be her brother."

"Hey. I'm curious." I look at Fang. "Do you...have feelings for Serah?"

"No I don't! Why does everyone keep thinking that?" I say.

"Relax, honey." Fang says.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" I say to Fang.

Fang sits back, slightly turning her head, barely whispering. "Yeesh. Someone's had a rough day on that mission."

"I heard that." I say. Well, she isn't wrong. I blame that ORPHAN Hunter X79.

Sazh and Vanille are just sitting on the pier, watching the ocean view, with Dajh sitting in between them. "It's so beautiful." Vanille says.

"Ha, yeah. It sure does bring back memories." Sazh says.

Vanille faces Sazh. "Hey. You're still not mad at me about...that incident, are yea?"

Sazh smiles and gives a chuckle. "Oh, come on, Vanille. That was a long time ago. Besides, no harm's done." Sazh puts a hand on Dajhs head. "After all, my little boy's right here. Alive and well." Vanille smiles as she watches the old man and the little boy laughing. "Besides, you saved his life when he was suffering pneumonia."

Vanille nods. "Yep."

Sazh lifts Dajh. The kid sits on his shoulders, laughing. The chocobo chick pops out of Sazh's afro and chirps. The chocobo flies out and lands in Dajh's afro. Sazh stands up and walks off. Vanille looks back, watching the two leave, then returns her attention to the ocean view.

Serah and Snow are now walking by the beach shores of New Bodhum, holding hands. Serah smiles as they walk. After walking for a while, they both sit on the soft sand, just by the edge of the shore. The small waves moves in, barely touching their feet, then the waters returns into the ocean.

"Being here reminds me of home." Serah leans to the side, resting her head on Snows shoulder. "Of Bodhum."

Snow wraps an arm around Serah, pulling her close to him. "I'll always remember that special night. When I proposed to you."

Serah looks at Snow. "You know...When you did. I was so happy." Snow looks at Serah. "I was so happy, that all of my worries disappeared. About Lightning...About being a l'Cie."

"Hey. What did I tell yea?" Snow asks. "You and me. We'll always be together."

Serah giggles a little then she rests her head on Snows shoulder. The happy couple just sits here for a while.

Half an hour later, the fireworks are going off. Everything stands in all places to view the exploding colors in the air. The pier, pier grounds, the shore, the cliffs. As for me and the others, we're all standing at the furtherest line of the pier. Watching the fireworks. Well, not all of us are. Hope and Lightning aren't around.

"Wow. It's so pretty." Vanille says.

"Yeah. Just like back on Cocoon." Snow says.

Hope arrives, depressed with the flowers in his hands. We all turn to see the kid coming. Serah and Vanille waves at him. "Hey. You're here!" Vanille says.

Hope looks up, trying hard to hide his disappointment. "Hey guys."

"Hope. You made it." Snow says.

"What's with the flowers?" Sazh asked.

Hope looks surprised and nervous. He looks at the roses he's holding. He didn't realize he was still holding them. Serah doesn't look too confused, she knows what they were for.

Hope quickly holds them behind his back. "Uh. Nothing...it's nothing."

"Okay then..." Snow looks around us. "Has anyone seen Light?" We all look around as well.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her since dinner." Vanille says.

"I believe I saw her by the fountain on my way here." Hope says.

We're not really surprised to hear that. "That soldier is always spending her time with that fountain. What gives?" Sazh asks.

"What's wrong with that?" Fang asks. "I often see Patrick and Hope around that fountain."

"Yeah, well that's because we have actual reasons to do so. To talk to our parents." I say. I stand up, making my way across from the group. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

I leave the group. Serah stands up as well. She grabs Hope and pulls him away from the group, just to have a private conversation with him.

"Those flowers. We're they for the girl?" Serah asks.

"Yeah...they were." Hope says.

"Did she turn you down?" Serah asks.

Hope shook his head. "No, not really. I was about to tell her, but I choked, then...our moment got interrupted and she left."

"Oh. I'm sorry about that." Serah says. Serah looks at the flowers. "They are very lovely. I sure she would have loved them."

"Yeah." Hope says. Serah and Hope rejoins with the group to watch the fireworks.

Meanwhile, Lightning is in the Central Plaza, seating on the bench looking up at the statue of the Crystal Pillar of Cocoon. She hardly pays any attention to the fireworks behind her. Over the roaring sounds of the explosion and the faded flashing colors, her mind is else where.

"Hey, Farron!" Lightning jumps a little, she turns to see it's only me. "What's up?"

Lightning relaxes. "Oh. It's only you." Lightning returns her attention to the pillar. "Nothing much."

I sigh, making my way past the bench, standing in front of it and beside Lightning. "Okay, Light. What's up with you?" Lightning doesn't answer my question. Just stays silent. "You've been a little distracted lately. Always coming to this statue or visiting the original Cocoon Pillar. Why is that?"

Lightning still doesn't answer. Soon enough, she sighs. "I don't really know." Lightning crosses her arms and legs, looking down a little. "For the past few months...I just have this feeling inside of me. I just feel empty."

I seat next to Lightning. "You mean you're feeling lonely?"

Lightning slowly shook her head. "No...that's not it." Lightning stands up. She walks in front of the statue, looking up at the pillar. "It's just...I don't know...I guess I'm feeling a little home sick." I raise an eyebrow hearing that. "It's been a whole year already since Cocoon fell, and already, I miss home."

"But. You are home." I stand, walking up until I'm next to Lightning. "Your family is here. Our home is here. We built a new life here on Pulse." I take out a piece of Gil, and toss it into the fountain.

"I know. I know." Lightning turns to face me. "Cocoon is done for and we've made a new home on Gran Pulse. New Bodhum is just like how it was back on Cocoon but...It just doesn't feel the same." Lightning turns, looking down. "I wasn't born and raised here. With Serah...and my parents."

Parents. I know how she's feeling. "Must be hard to replace memories, doesn't it?" I say. Lightning doesn't answer. She just say silent. "Hey, Light. I have something for yea?" Lightning turns, facing me to see I'm holding a small gift box. Lightning seems a bit surprised to see it. "Happy New Year, Light."

Lightning's speechless. She's not flattered. If anything, only curious. Lightning takes the gift box. She opens it to find a diamond hearted necklace. Lightning's surprised to see it. Lightning grabs the chain and holds it out.

"Your mom's necklace?" Lightning asks.

I reach into the neck of my shirt, revealing my necklace. "An exact replica of it." I shove the necklace back into my shirt. "Read what it says on the back." Lightning looks at the necklace. She lays the diamond heart on her palm, turning it on its back to read the small engraving on it. 'Got yr back'. Lightning looks at me. Her expression is her usual look, but in her eyes, she's surprised. "Just my way of showing I trust yea, and thanking for the job."

Lightning sighs a little. "Patrick, you didn't really have to do this."

"Hey, we're partners. It's not like I'm proposing." Lightning looks at me, surprised. She remembers how Snow proposed to Serah with that necklace. I could read her thoughts. I cross my arms, looking disappointed. "I'm not proposing. Get that silly idea out of your head."

"Right. Sorry." Lightning says.

I take the necklace, stand behind Lightning and put it around her necklace. When that's done, Lightning takes a moment to take it in. "Huh...it's...actually not so bad." Lightning turns to face me, offering a small smile. "Thank you, Patrick."

I give a slow nod. "How about we return to the others?"

Lightning agrees, and we head back to the pier.

Meanwhile, Noel is watching the fireworks from a cliff. He just sits there, legs crossed, watching the exploding colors from a distance. Noel thinks back to what Lebreau told him back at the cafe.

_'when you make a wish on a firework, it'll come true'_

"Fireworks that grant wishes, huh?" Noel whispers. Noel thinks carefully for what he wants to wish for. Noel reaches into his pocket. He takes out a white long thin petal flower with a yellow center. Yeul's Flower. Noel holds the flower close to him, and he looks up at the fireworks. "I wish we could be together again, Yeul."

[Flashback]

Noel is riding a red chocobo down the path of the Yaschas Massif. Over 700 years in the past. Noel is on his way to the city, Paddra. Paddra was once a large city where the people lived in peace. Noel's friend, Yeul, lives within this city with her guardian, Caius. Yeul is a young lady who is known as a Seeress, a person that wields great wisdom. Some people think are descendant of the Goddess: Etro. No one knows for sure, but the Seeress are known to be worshipers to the Goddess.

Noel arrives at Paddra, in the are that's later to be known as the Paddraean Archaeopolis. Noel dismounts from his chocobo. He walks down the stairs, entering the city. Noel walks past the towns folk. Few of them greeted Noel, Noel replies with a 'hi' or a wave.

Noel arrives at a large blue teepee tent. This place is where Yeul lives. Noel enters the tent. Yeul's places is quite the set up. Mostly mets, short tables, rugs, glass chimes hanging from the ceiling. Old fashion stuff.

As Noel walks in, a large blade blocks his way. Noel turns to see it's only Caius. "State your business, traveler."

"Caius, it's me." Noel says.

Caius gives Noel a close, squinty eye look. "Me. Who?"

"Knock it off, Caius." Caius turns and Noel looks ahead, to see it's Yeul.

Yeul has green eyes and long dark blue hair, with two long strands that frame her face. She has a lean, petite build. She wears a unique diadem headdress with a semi-transparent veil that partially hides her face, though the veil is barely visible so it's very easy to see her face through it. She wears a white halter-top with an opening in the center and a small crystal above her chest. She wears a short wrap-around pleated white and pastel purple skirt with a fur pelt in the back, along with yellow boots. Her wrists are adorned with numerous bracelets, and she wears armbands on her biceps and beaded necklaces.

Caius retreats his blade. "I'm just doing my job, Yeul." Caius moves aside, sitting on a mat.

Noel approaches to Yeul. Yeul smiles at Noel. "Noel. It's so good to see you. How's training going?"

Noel shrug his shoulders. "Eh, well. Wasn't so bad. Hunted some large beasts. They weren't a challenge, really."

Yeul moves to a short table with a crystal ball in the center. Yeul and Noel take their seats on the mats. "I'm glad to hear training's going well. Listen. I called you here on a serious business." Noel seems curious. "You are aware of Bhunivelze, are you?"

"The Grand Fal'Cie?" Noel asks.

Bhunivelze is the fal'Cie who takes control of all the other fal'Cie. You could say he's a Gran Pulse version of Eden. With his twin sons: Pulse and Lindzel. Yeul nods. "That's right. Ten days ago, Caius has discovered that Bhunivelze is having secret meetings with Lindzel. Whenever Caius encounters with the fal'Cie, he claims that nothing's happening. Ever since that day, he's been real quiet lately. Not a single fal'Cie have been given any orders from him."

"It's all very strange." Caius says. Noel turns to see the man. "We believe that Bhunivelze is up to something. Something bad."

Noel turns back to Yeul. Yeul has her eyes closed, placing her hands on the crystal ball. Yeul is silent and motionless for a moment. After a moment, Yeul opens her eyes. "I can feel Etro's presence. Even the Goddess is suspicious."

"So, what do we do?" Noel asks.

"For now. We lay low." Caius says. "Bhunivelze has requested a summons from Yeul."

"He ask for me to go alone...without Caius." Yeul says.

Noel seems worried. He puts his hands on Yeuls. "Are you going to be okay?"

Yeul smiles and yes. "Of course I will. I have the Goddess and the Maker looking after me." Yeul looks up at Caius. "Caius. While I'm gone. I need you to help Noel complete his training. If anything goes wrong, I'm going to need him."

Caius nods. "As you wish, Yeul."

[Flashback ends]

Noel still looks up at the skies as he thinks back to that moment. Noel sighs, then looks back down at the flower in his hand. "Yeul..." Noel slowly, gently closes his hand. "Where are you?"


	5. New Bodhum part II

A/N: Many things have changed wouldn't you say? I bet you guys are wondering who's the mystery girl Hope's crushing on. Well, we're now on part II, where things are about to get ugly for the town.

Chapter 2: New Bodhum

* * *

><p>The fireworks goes on all night. Everyone shouted the final countdown for midnight to strike, then they all screamed 'Happy New Year'.<p>

Slowly, everyone started to return to their homes. We Heroes of Cocoon were the first. After we got home, we started getting ready for bed. Except for Serah and Snow, who are both sitting on the couch watching a romantic movie.

We all get in comfortable clothes. Lightning: A white sleeveless top and blue pajama pants. Serah: A white T-shirt with pink shorts. Hope: Gray T-shirt with red, dark red plaid pants. Vanille: Pink shirt and light purple silk pants. Snow: Just in his red shirt and his boxers. It disgusts me. Myself: Black T-shirt with red outlines and blue pants. My left arm is bandaged from wrist to elbow, for that area is still scarred from the cuts I use to give myself. Fang is just in a blue robe, same with Sazh but in green.

Lightning is yawning and stretching her arms in the air, as she makes her way to her room, on the third floor. She enters her room. She sits on the chair in front of a mirror on a desk. Lightning takes a brush, does her hair a little bit. Nothing much, just straighten it a little. During her progress, Lightning sees something through her mirror. She stops and turns to her bed, which has the bouquet of flowers Hope had.

"Wha...?" Lightning stands, she walks up to her bed. She stands in front of her bed, arms crossed, looking down at the flowers. "First the necklace...now this?" Lightning doesn't really think the flowers are from me, but feeling a bit concerned about receiving gifts all day, even if it's just two. She picks up the bouquet, searching for a note. she finds the note and reads it. "Thanks for everything. I'm happy to have you in my life. Happy New Years. Hope."

Lightning stares at the note for a moment, then looks back at the roses. The soldier girl was standing still. She never figured Hope would do something like this for her. Then again, she realizes she has done a lot for him while they were l'Cie: Toughening him up, that night in Nautilus, protecting him, comforting the poor boy, taking him in when he lost his father. Plus it's a special night.

Lightning smiles a little, then sniffs the roses. To her, they have a lovely scent. Lightning leaves her room. She goes to Hope's room, which is on the second floor. She looks into his room by the door. Hope is laying on his bed. He's facing away from the door, so it's hard to tell if the kid's asleep.

Just in case, Lightning sneaks up to Hope. When she's right beside him, she can see he's already asleep. She smiles, she admits he looks cute when he's sleeping, like a little kid. Lightning leans in, gives him a kiss on the cheek, then whispers into his ear. "Thanks, Hope. Happy New Year."

Hope smiles a little in his sleep, moans and shifts a little to get comfortable. Lightning gives a silent chuckle, ruffles the boys hair, gently just not to disturb him. She pulls the covers up to his shoulders and then leaves the room. Lightning heads downstairs, to the kitchen. She puts the roses into a vase, fill the vase with water.

When that's done, Lightning heads back to the stairs, by crossing the living room. Serah and Snow spots Lightning. "Hey sis." Lightning turns to see her sister and 'brother'. They both notice the vase of roses. "What's with the flowers?"

Lightning looks at the vase. "Hope gave them to me."

"Oh really?" Serah starts to look surprised. She recognizes those roses from when Hope met up with the group for the fireworks.

Lightning leaves, Serah gets Snow's attention. "Snow. Do you know what that means?" Snow looks confused, he isn't really sure. "Hope is crushing on Lightning."

"What? One bouquet of flowers doesn't mean he's crushing on Lightning." Snow says. "Maybe he's...just being very friendly."

"No, no. Listen. Earlier today, he came to me for advice on..." Serah becomes interrupted by Snow.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold up. Hope went to you...for advice?" Snow asks.

"I know. I was surprised too." Serah says. "Anyways, he told me that he likes a girl, but he doesn't know how to tell her. So I told him to just tell her how he feels, and to bring her flowers too."

Snow stares into space, thinking. He's putting the pieces together: The flowers, the neck rub, going to Serah instead of Lightning for the advice. "It all makes sense now." Snow looks at Serah and smiles. "Hey, if he pulls it off, we could be our brother-in law."

Serah smiles at Snows silly comment.

Later at night, everyone's soundly asleep. Even the fireworks have ended so everyone can get a quiet night for sleep. It's 1:42 AM. The streets are dark and quiet. A soft wind blows. In the street tunnels near the barrier walls, Caius walks in the darkness. He arrives at a small building. He enters the house. It's a control room, the one that keeps the barrier activate.

Caius walks up to the control panels, looking down at it. "Hmm..." He just looks down at the controls. Caius looks ahead. Now he's starting to get this presence feeling. "Why are you here, old friend?"

Noel stands by the door, looking at Caius. "You know why I am. I'm here for you."

Caius rolls his eyes to the side, barely turning his head over his shoulder. "Is that so?" Caius completely turns, facing Noel.

"Caius...what is it you are trying to do? Answer me!" Noel asks.

"Unlike you, Noel, I am trying to find and help Yeul." Caius looks up. "She is still asleep in crystal." Caius raises his hand to his chest level and clinches into a fist. "I can feel it."

"But why are you trying to destroy Pulse? What does that have to do with saving Yeul?" Noel asks.

Caius looks directly back at Noel. "That is none of your concern. But I will find Yeul, and I will free her from her prison of slumber." Caius grabs for his blade, taking it out. "But first. I must deal with those who dares stand in my way."

Caius raises his blade. Noel takes a step back, taking out his dual blades, readying to attack. The both of them are in a stand still for a moment, then Caius yells, and does a quick, heavy turn strike. Smashing his blade on the controls. The control panel shatters, sparks and smoked. Noel is surprised to see that. The barrier in the city begins to vanish, from top to bottom.

The barrier is completely gone. A behemoth slowly creeps out of the shadows from the tunnels outside of the city. The behemoth steps into the moonlight, along with a few beasts, and they all softly growl as they take a look at the defenseless city.

Me and the others are still sleeping in our home. As we rest, a loud siren goes on. The alarm settles me to awake. "I didn't do it!" I shout as I sit up, and then fell out of my bed. "Ow!"

Lightning instantly awakens. Sitting up on her bed. She turns her attention to the window as she hears the siren. Without hesitation, Lightning gets out of bed, grabbing her Gunblade and making it out the door. Lightning by the door of her room, looking all around the hallway. Lightning makes hurry to my room, which is two doors next to hers.

Lightning opens the door. To her disapproval, she finds me on the floor. I start sitting up, Lightning rushes up to me. She grabs my arm and forces me on my feet, hard. "On your feet, soldier!" Lightning says.

When I'm on my feet, I shake my head, getting the sleep off of me. When my senses came too, I can hear the emergency siren going on. "Oh! We're in trouble!"

"No kidding!" Lightning says irritated. "Move it! Move it!"

Lightning zooms out of the door. I quickly grab my bow, quiver of arrows, a pouch and filled it with a few dozen of my throwing stars, then I head out the door. Me and Lightning hurries up on waking everyone up. I took care of everyone on this floor, Fang, Vanille, Sazh and Dajh. Lightning gets everyone on the second, Hope and the NORA gang.

Me and Lightning rushes to Serah and Snow's room on the first floor while waiting for everyone else to be fully awake and to grab their weapons. None of us bother to change clothes, especially since the girls would take forever...well mostly Vanille and Lebreau. I'd say the same with Serah.

Me and Lightning arrive in Serah and Snow's room. They're both sharing a room together. Lightning can hardly accept it, but they are married now, and Serah's an adult now. Serah is sitting on the bed while Snow's still asleep. Serah starts shaking Snow. "Snow! Wait up! There's an emergency!"

Snow just mumbles and turns. Me and Lightning are standing by the bed. Serah looks at us, begging for help. "Hey, you married the oaf." Lightning says.

"I'll get him up." I leave the room. Lightning and Serah watches me leave. Lightning isn't too happy to see me leave, as if I'm really just leaving them to wake up Snow.

Lightning groans and rolls her eyes. Lightning grabs Snow by the collar of his shirt, shaking him violently. "Wake up you big dork!" Snow doesn't wake up.

Lightning releases her grip, letting Snow fall back on the bed. I return with a bowl of ice. Lightning and Serah notices the ice by the time I'm beside them. Before they could say or do anything, I'm pouring the ice down his shirt. As soon as I do, he's yelling and instantly sitting up.

"Cold! Cold!" Snow shouts.

Snow jumps out of bed, running around as the ice cubes pours out of his back, then he crashes into a wall and falls on the ground. The three of us stands and watches Snow on the ground. Serah leans to the side by me. "Was that really necessary?"

"He's awake, isn't he?" I asked.

We quickly get Snow back on his feet. As soon as we do, we all leave the mansion. We all stopped by the gates, in front of the stairs. We all look at the view of the city, which is crawling with monsters and panicing citizens.

"Oh no...this is terrible." Vanille says.

"Yeah. No kidding. It's the Purge all over again." Sazh says.

"How is this happening?" Snow asks.

Hope looks up. "The barrier!" We all look up. "It's been shut down."

We're all surprised to see that. After hearing someone scream and a Behemoth roaring, I look down. Two citizens are running past the fountain. Several Torama's and a Behemoth. Torama's are cat-like creatures with either red or black fur, long tails, sharp fangs and claws and often poisonous.

The creatures all stopped to the fountain. They surround and spread around it, getting ready to attack. "The statue!" I make a rush for it.

"Patrick!" Serah shouts, but that doesn't stop me.

One of the Torama's makes it pounce. I shove my body at it with full force as it leaps towards the statue. The Torama gets knocked back, crashing to the ground. The impact caused me to stagger a little, but I quickly recovered. I turn to see myself surrounded by the Torama's and a Behemoth in front of me. The Torama's pounces at me. I quickly toss my throwing stars at them. The stars hits them in the skull, knocking them out. They're bodies pretty much collapse around me.

I look ahead to see the Behemoth looking at me, growling. "Damn it! He's gonna get himself killed!" Lightning says. Everyone makes a rush for it, gathering around and defending the statue. Lightning and Hope comes to my side, adding me in my battle against the Behemoth.

Lightning rushes towards the Behemoth, striking it. Hope casts his Fire and Blizzard spells. I stay back shooting with Flamestrike. The Behemoth swipes its claws at Lightning, but the soldier girl stays strong. We attack the Behemoth, the beast fights back. Hope switches to Medic, casting Cure on Lightning. Soon enough, we had the Behemoth staggering, then we all shift into Commando, I shoot, Lightning attacks and Hope cast Ruin repeatly at it.

The Behemoth falls, but the battle is far from over. All kinds of creatures: Beasts, Torama's, Stalkers, Spooks, few Wyverns. They're all attacking in all places. "There are too many of them!" Vanille says.

Serah swings her Bowsword at the Beasts that surrounds her and Dajh. They can barely be slashed from the weapon, Serah just swings it at them. The girl clearly still needs some training. One of the beast strikes, knocking the weapon out of Serah's hands. That surprised her.

Serah and Dajh are now in deep trouble, as the beasts creeps closer to them. All of us are too busy fighting to see their situation. When Snow was free from his battles, he looks around until he spots Serah in trouble.

"Serah!" Hearing his call startles me and Lightning. They both turn to see them in trouble.

Sazh also turns to see Dajh in trouble with Serah. "Dajh!"

One of the beasts growls ferociously and pounces. "Serah!" Me and Lightning shouts.

Serah kneels down as she and Dajh turns to each other, huddling in terror. They expect sharp fangs and claws to dig into their flesh, but nothing happens. They slowly look, to see the beast that leaped at them on the ground, dead, with a small blade pierced through it's skull.

Serah is surprised to see that. "What the..." Serah and Dajh both see the rest of the Beasts are still standing, but noticed they have their attention else where, growling softly even.

Serah and Dajh turns, looking up at the rooftop of a building. There, Noel is standing there, looking down at the situation. He's currently holding his large sword. He jumps off the roof and lands right on the ground. He lands on his hand and knees, still looking at monsters. The beasts shifts their positions, lining up in front of Serah, growling at Noel.

The beasts charges, and Noel does as well. The middle beast pounces at Noel. Noel jabs his sword into the beast, killing it. The other two beast pounces at Noel. Noel puts his hands on one of the beasts stomach as it leaps on him, and he tosses it over him. Noel quickly turned to the other Beast pouncing at him, shooting a Ruin spell at it before it even touched the boy. The beast gets knocked back from the magic orb.

Noel turns to see the beast he tossed is getting back on it's claws. Serah and Dajh just sits there, looking surprised. "Who is he?" Dajh asked.

The beast growls and pounces on Noel. Noel blocks the attack with his blade, he jabs his free hand several times in the beasts stomach. The beast releases its grip from the blade, then Noel slashes it. The beast dies, now just one is standing. Noel grabs the small blade impaled to the dead beasts skull. He positions himself to attack, so does the beast.

The beast roars and charges towards Noel. Noel makes his stand, he morphs and merges his blades into a lance, positions himself to strike. The beast runs closer, then leaps towards Noel. Noel jabs his lance through the beast. The beast falls dead in the lance.

Noel removes the corpse from his weapon. He turns his weapon back into dual swords and puts them away. Noel turns to Serah and Dajh, he lends Serah a hand. "You okay?"

"Y...yeah." Serah accepts Noel's hand. Noel helps Serah stand.

We all cleared the monsters around the memorial fountain. Me, Lightning, Snow and Sazh rushes towards Serah and Dajh. Vanille, Hope and Fang followed us from behind.

"Dajh!" Sazh gets down on his knees to hug his son.

"Daddy!" Dajh jumps into Sazh's arms.

"Serah!" Lightning hugs Serah, holding on to her. Me and Snow are beside them. "Serah, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Serah hugs Lightning back. "I'm fine, Light. I'm okay." Serah turns her attention to Noel. "Thanks to him."

We all look directly at Noel. Most of us are suspicious about him. Fang walks up to him, arms crossed. "Well. What do we have here?" Fang is next to Noel. "Guessing by the way you're dressed, you're from here, Gran Pulse."

"That's right. The name's Noel." Noel says.

"You're from Pulse?" Hope says. "I thought Vanille and Fang are the only Gran Pulse survivors?"

"Well, apparently there's another one." Sazh says. "Where'd you come from, sonny?"

"Don't call me sonny." Noel says. "Anyways, I have a few questions for you guys as well."

"Well the questions can wait." We all turn to look at Lightning. "We have a situation that needs handling."

Lightning turns to the hundreds of monsters running around, invading the city. All the citizens panicking in fear. "Lightning's right. We need to save the town." I say. "So, what's the plan, General?"

"We need to split up." Lightning says. "Serah, you and Sazh evacuate the citizens. Get them somewhere safe."

Sazh takes out his guns. "You can count on us, soldier girl!"

Team NORA steps up. "We can help too! We'll help protect the citizens." Gadot says.

"Fine." Lightning says. "Hope, see if you can bring the shield back up."

Hope nods. "Got it."

"Fang. You go with Hope. He can use the protection." Lightning says.

Fang crosses her arms, rolling her eyes. "Great. You assign me to babysit the kid."

Hope seems offended. "Hey!"

Lightning turns to me. "Patrick, I need you in the front lines, Prevent any more monsters from entering the city."

I salute. "Yes ma'am."

Vanille rushes to my side. "Oh! Oh! I wanna help! Take me with you!"

I look at Vanille a bit surprised to hear that, then I turn to Lightning. "Looks like I got a new partner."

"Right." Lightning turns to Noel. "You're coming with me and Snow. We're gonna handle the monsters out here."

Snow pounds his fists together. "All right! It's hero time."

We all went our separate ways. Serah and Sazh now runs down the Central Plaza, gathering all the scared citizens who are running away from the monsters. Serah and Sazh wonders around the Central Plaza, taking out any of the monsters that gets in the way. Serah shifted her weapon into a bow and she and Sazh shoots at them together.

Sazh then shifts into Synergist, applied Bravery and Faith on himself and Serah. When that's done, he returns to Commando and continues shooting at the monsters.

[In game: The goal in this event would be to defeat the monsters that are standing still and having cowered citizens cornered. A total of five groups of citizens at the moment]

Serah and Sazh finds the cowering citizens and and defeats the monsters that have them trapped. With each citizen rescued, one of the NORA members escorts them to the mansion for safety.

Whenever Serah or Sazh were in quite a pickle, Serah would have to shift into Medic and heal their wounds. Fighting the monsters was hard for those two, since Sazh is just an old man who can barely keep up and Serah's still in training to fight. But they're still doing fine handling the situation.

After saving the last group of citizens, Serah and Sazh escorts that group to the mansion. "That's the last of them." Serah says.

A large wyvern soars in. Lebreau notices it. "Serah! Look out!" Lebreau starts shooting at the wyvern. Serah turns to see the monster above them.

"Ah, great. Just what we need." Sazh complains.

There was no time for arguing. Serah and Sazh takes out their weapons, fighting the monster. Sazh shifts into Synergist, giving himself and Serah Bravery and Faith. Serah casts some fire spells at the wyvern.

The wyvern flows down to their level and sweeps it's wings at Serah and Sazh. Sazh shifts into Shaman, doing Flamestrikes at the monster. The wyearn spits a toxic bolt at Sazh. Hurting him badly, and applying Deprotect and Poison on him.

Serah shifts into Medic, casting Cure on Sazh. Sazh used an antidote to cure his poison problem. The wyvern focuses on Serah, then charge bites her, dealing a hell of damage on her. Sazh continues shooting Flamestrikers on the wyvern while Serah's heals herself.

Soon enough, the wyvern enters staggering, then both Sazh and Serah shifts into Commando and shoots at the monster until it's as good as dead.

Serah and Sazh takes a moment to rest up. "Oh man. That was close. I don't know how Lightning does this." Serah says.

"Well, I'd say it's cause she's a highly trained soldier girl." Sazh says.

Serah laughs a little, it is pretty obvious. Then she turns to face the group. "Everything's going to be okay. You'll all be safe here until we get the situation under control."

NORA secures the gates, aiming their guns. Guarding the gates for any monsters that might come in.

Serah and Sazh stays with the citizens too to make sure everyone's all right.

Meanwhile, Fang is waiting outside of the control room, leaning against the building arms crossed. She's just waiting for Hope to do his work to get the barrier back up. She's not pleased. She would much rather be out in the battlefield clearing up the monsters with Lightning. But instead, she's stuck 'babysitting' Hope.

An explosion happens, which startles Fang. She jumps away from the building, her lance out and position to strike. Only smoke comes out of the small house, then Hope comes out coughing, trying to clear the smoke around him.

Fang lets her guard down. "What happened?" Fang asks.

Hope only answers with a few coughs then speaks. "Someone smashed the controls."

Fang isn't too happy to hear that. "Can you fix it, techno wizard?" Fang says with a chuckle in the end.

Hope seems annoyed at Fangs little nickname for him. "It could take hours to repair the control panels, maybe days." Hope says.

Fang groans. "We don't have time for this."

"We don't have to." Hope says. "I've prepared a temporary backup generator back at the ORPHAN station for emergencies."

"Well. What are we waiting for? Let's getting a-moving." Already, Fang walks off.

"W-wait up." Hope says, catching up to Fang.

Fang and Hope come out of the tunnel, into the night. ORPHAN station is just at the other side of town where they are. They would now have to fight their way through the monsters in order to get over there. At least Fang finally gets some fun around here.

They first run into a group of beasts. Fang fights them head on while Hope stays back, casting Banish, smiting enemies with light magic at them. The beasts strikes at Fang. Fang does Blitz, doing a sweep strike with her lance. Two beasts died and the last one falls from Hopes Aero spell.

Fang and Hope continues on, taking down the next wave of monsters, a Megistotherian and three Torama's. Fang focuses on the Megistotherian and Hope takes on the Torama's.

The Torama's were a hard fight for the boy, and The Megistotherian was pretty strong. Fang had to shift into Sentinel and taunt the beasts to her, then she uses Mediguard to defeat herself.

Hope spends his time in battle constantly switching Commando to Medic. Casting his Ruin spells at the creatures while healing up Fang. At one point, he decided to go to Synergist and give Fang protect, saves up time so he can focus on Ruin-ing the enemies. Ha, ha. Good one, Kataang9.

After that battle, Fang and Hope moves on. "Man. This is hard." Hope says. "How did you and Vanille put up with this back in Oerba?"

"You learn to get use to it, kid." Fang says. Fang looks up, she suddenly stops and grabs Hope by the back of his shirt. "Look out!"

Fang runs back as a large Behemoth land right whee they were at. They were nearly squished. Almost remind Hope of that time when he was almost crushed by that giant Adamantortoise.

Fang and Hope ready themselves and attack the Behemoth. Fang shifts into Shaman and does Galestrikes, while Hope casts Fire and Banish. The Behemoth strikes hard at Fang, but she handled it fine. Didn't need Hopes healing or Protect.

The battle goes on until they have the Behemoth staggering, and then they shift into Commando. Fang strikes, the first one making the Behemoth launched into the air, and Hope cast his Ruin spells at it.

The Behemoth falls quickly. Fang and Hope takes a moment to rest. "Thanks for the save." Hope says.

"Was nothing. If I let yea got squished, your friends would have had my hide." Fang says. Hope knows she's not wrong. Me, Snow and Lightning are prtty protective for him. "Let's keep moving."

Fang and Hope moves on in South Winding Way. This area is only crawling with the beasts and some Sahagin's. Fang and Hope made an easy clean cut through these monsters.

In a matter of minutes, they made it to the ORPHAN station. To their luck, the building and everything inside is unharmed.

"We made it." Hope says.

"Good." Fang says, hanging by the door. "Let's just get this over with."

Hope walks right in. "It'll take a moment, so watch my back."

Fang just stands by the station entrance while Hope is in the control room doing his work. Fang can see the monsters rampaging all over town. Some of them aren't even bothering to attack her.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, Hope returns. "It'll take a few minutes for the barrier to power up."

"Thank goodness." Fang says. "Let's return to the others."

Fang and Hope fights their way through the city to head back to the mansion.

Meanwhile, at the front lines, ORPHAN troopers are shooting at the monsters that are charging in. Vanille is standing by in the front line casting her offensive magic.

One of the Megistotherians comes at her. Vanille gasps as she realizes the monster is attacking her. I start shooting my arrows at the Megistotherian before it manage to harm her. The other ORPHAN troopers shoots at the beast until it's dead.

I stand by Vanille. "Stay focused." I tell her. "We need to hold them off until Hope gets that barrier back up."

Vanille nods. "Right."

Vanille takes out her binding rod and we both move ahead of the line, facing the monsters.

[In game: This is a different time based event from ORPHAN Hunter X79. What happens is this event will be that wave of enemies will come in endlessly, getting stronger and tougher with each wave you defeat, and you have to survive the fight until the timer runs out.]

Vanille and I only have five minutes (5:00) to hold off the creatures.

For now, we face three spooks and two beasts. Me and Vanille both shift into Saboteur and weaken their defenses with Deprotect and Deshell. It was done quickly, then I shift into Synergist to apply Haste on myself and Vanille. Vanille shifts into Shaman and does Galestrike. The spooks went down easy, but now we focus on the beasts. One of them attacks Vanille and the other one hits me.

Me and Vanille defeated the beasts, then more monsters come in. A Torama pounces onto me. Vanille shifts into Medic and starts casting Cure on me, then she shifts into Ravager and casts Fire and Aero. I start shooting at the Torama's until one of them dies.

Four minutes (4:00) remains.

Pulsework Knights marches right in. I shift into Shaman and start using Flamestrikes. Vanille helps me out facing the Pulsework Knights. Those robot creatures walks towards us and strikes us. We finally got one staggered, I shift into Commando and start shooting at it while Vanille focus on the other ones. I got the staggered Pulsework destroyed, then I focus on the one Vanille's attack. I shift into Shaman and attacked until it's Staggering, then went Commando and do Ruin spells.

Three minutes (3:00) remains.

The Pulsework Knights are defeated, then a Megistotherian and some slug plants appeared. Oh, now it's getting tougher. I focus using Blitz on the slug plants since they're gathered, while Vanille shifts into Saboteur and casts Deprotect and Deshell on the Meistotherian.

"Hold the line!" I say as I defeat the slug plants.

We now focus on the Megistotherian. Vanille shifts into Shaman and does some Galestrikes. The Megistotherian fights hard on us. Part of the fight, Vanille had to shift into Medic and heal our wounds.

Two minutes (2:00) remains.

Vanille shifts back into Ravager and we finally take down the Megistotherian. Tons of beasts and two Behemoths comes charging in.

"They just keep on coming." Vanille says, slowly backing away.

"Stand your ground! We've got to hold back until the barrier's back up." I say.

I start shooting at the beasts, they all charge towards us. I've manage to kill two of them before they reached us. Vanille casts her Fire and Aero spells at them. All of the beasts gets wiped then the Behemoth attacked us. I shift into Saboteur and cast Deprotect and Deshell at the Behemoth. Then I shift into Shaman doing Flamestrikes.

The Behemoth hurls at me, knocking me in the air. Vanille shifts into Medic to cast Cure on me.

One minute (1:00) remains.

I get back on my feet, and Vanille shifts into Ravager and we attacked the Behemoth. The Behemoth staggers then I shift into Commander and start shooting at it. The Behemoth falls then is replaced with two Behemoths and a Megistotherian. Both me and Vanille shifts into Saboteur and we repeatly cast Deprotect and Deshall on the monsters.

The Behemoths attacks me and the Megistotherian attacks Vanille. Vanille had to shift into Medic and do Cure a couple of times. I shift into Commando and start shooting. The monsters on this wave are strong, Vanille couldn't even get the chance to shift back into Ravager or Shaman.

Time's up.

Me and Vanille are standing in place on the front lines, as the monsters are looking at us growl. The barrier turns on. I look up to see the electrical bubble wave coming down at us.

"The barrier's up! Fall back!" I ordered.

Me, Vanile and the ORPHAN troops hurries back into the city. The monsters charges towards us. The barrier fully protects the city and the Behemoths and Megistotherian ends up bing repelled by it.

Vanille collapses on her butt, panting in exhaustion. "Boy. I'd thought that would never end." She says. I offer Vanille a hand, helping her stand back up. "How do you and Lightning handle situations like this?"

"Years of training." I say. "Well, we should probably get back to the others. They're probably back at the house."

Vanille nods. "Let's go."

All of us are now gathered up by the mansion courtyard...well, not all of us. Lightning, Snow and Noel are still out there, clearing up the Gran Pulse monsters that remain within the city.

Lightning just slashed the Torama, killing it, then push its body away from her. Lightning looks up to see the barrier's up and running.

"The shields are up. Let's finish this!" Lightning says.

Snow and Noel answers back an 'okay' as they fight off the monsters that are attacking them. Noel jabs his thin sword into the beasts throat, and Snow punches the large Megistotherian, causing it to stagger back, until Lightning comes in and shoots at it rapidly until it's as good as dead.

Now Lightning, Snow and Noel runs around the town, finishing off any of the remaining monsters.

Dozens of monsters, in groups, swarm all over town: Town Square, Beachfront and the Winding Way. The Central Plaza, where the memorial fountain is kept, is the only area that's clear.

Lightning, Noel and Snow start off in the Winding Way, where beasts and Toramas are rampaging. They fight off the monsters, Lightning casting Thunder and Banish in her Ravager role, Snow doing Frostrikes in Shaman and Noel attacking as a Commando.

The beasts and Toramas fight back and hard. Snow had to shift to Sentinal and do Steelguard to hold off the beasts, while Lightning shifts to Medic and heals their wounds. When that's done, they shift back into their prevous roles and attacked.

In a matter of minutes, the Winding Way was clear, and now they head for the Beachfront, where it's crawling with Sahagins and Terraquatics. Lightning shifts into Commando and repeatly does her Blitz ability, since all the monsters are gathered. Snow and Noel got the same idea and do it.

The Terraquatics fell quickly, so now the party focuses single targeting the Sahagins. One of the Sahagins screeches at Noel, which dazed him, then it strikes him. Noel shifts into Synergist, casting Protect and Bravery on himself and then Lightning and Snow.

By the time he was done, the Sahagins are defeated, clearing the Beachfront. Now they move onto the Town Square, which has behemoths, Spooks and a Wyvern.

"This looks pretty bad." Snow says.

"When is it ever good?" Noel asks.

"Got me there." Snow says.

Lightning and the boys focus on attacking the tough ones, which are the Behemoth. However, they do end up facing the Spooks as well since they're grouped.

The Behemoths were a hard fight. Noel shifts into Sentinal and holds off the Behemoths with Entrench, while Snow and Lightning are fighting off the monsters. The Behemoths strikes Noel, but the young warrior hardly suffers much damage. When he's done guarding, he counterattacks at the Behemoths.

The Spooks casts offensive magic. Lightning ends up shifting into Medic and cast Cure on herself and Snow and Noel. Then she shifts into Commando and continues attacking.

The Spooks went down and so does one Behemoth. The rest of the Behemoths attack hard. Snow and Lightning fights them off. Lightning hops on one of the Behemoth and stabs her weapon into it. The Behemoth roars in pain, and tries to shake Lightning off of it.

Noel and Snow focuses on the remaining Behemoths that are attacking them. When the one Behemoth settles down, Lightning does a few strikes on its back. For a final strike, she impales her weapon into the Behemoth, ending the beasts life.

Lightning, Noel and Snow finished off the monsters in the area. They stand alone in different places, cautiously look about.

"Is that all of them?" Snow asks.

Just then, a Beast leaps out of no where. Snow turns to see it's pouncing on him, until Lightning shoots, killing it before it could land of Snow. "Yes. That is all of them." Lightning says.

"Good. That's good." Noel says. "What now?"

"We should meet up with the others." Lightning says. "They're probably waiting for us back at the house."

The trio makes their way across the city towards the mansion. They walk up the stairs to find the courtyard packed with people. In the middle, they found Serah and the others.

"Lightning! Snow!" Serah runs to them, she gives Snow the first hug. "You're okay?"

"Of course we are." Snow says. "Heroes never die!"

Lightning just rolls her eyes and sighs at Snows arrogance. Serah turns to Lightning and gives her a hug. When the reunion was done, Lightning makes an announcement.

"All right. The monsters are all taken care of. You may safely return to your homes."

Everyone does what Lightning says and returned to their homes. Now it's just Lightning and the gang. It's pretty quiet, up until a fainted clapping sound happens.

Everyone turns heads, trying to see where the source of the notice is coming from, up until they look up at the mansion, to find Caius standing on the lower roof above the doors, slowly clapping looking down at the former l'Cies.

"I must say, I'm actually quite impressed." Caius stops clapping and drops his hands. "You've handled that situation better then I expected. No wonder everyone respects you."

"Caius." Noel says, bitterly. The rest of the group looks at Noel, surprised to hear that Noel knows the man. "This was your doing?"

"Indeed it is." Caius says. "I see you've made some new friends, Noel. I guess Yeul and I are just no good for you."

"That's not true!" Noel says, offended. "Why are you doing this? Why are you attacking these innocent people?"

"For Yeul, of course." Caius says.

Noel is surprised to hear that for an answer. "That's a lie! THIS isn't what Yeul wants!"

"You might be right, but it is the only way to save her from her own imprisonment." Caius says. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I am needed else where."

Caius summons his l'Cie crystal from his brand, then tosses it into the air. "Farewell."

Caius jumps back high, as he falls to the cliff, he vanishes out of sight. We all look at the direction Caius was at, then we look up at the fainted purple glow in the sky. Dark clouds rolls into a swirling vortex. A large purple summoning circle with a sphere in the middle appears.

It glows brightly, causing us to look away, then the sphere explodes, with an eidolon soaring down at us at high speed. Three feet off the ground, Chaos Bahamut shifts its form into a dragon, and roars at us.

We were surprised to see the eidolon, Fang is the most surprised. "Is that...Bahamut?"

"It looks like it is, but I don't think it's the Bahamut you know." Snow says.

"It's Bahamut all right, but it's one that's infused with Chaos." Noel says.

"Chaotic or not, we're bringing it down!" I say.

Lightning, Snow and Noel faces the Chaos Bahamut. Lightning casts a Ruin spell then attacks head on. Snow casts Blizzard spells while Noel shifts into Synergist and strengths the party with Bravery and Protect.

Chaos Bahamut strikes at Snow with Dragon Claw, striking twice, then knocks the group in the air with Whirlwind, spin striking. Noel shifts into Sentinel and does Entrench. Lightning shifts into Medic and starts healing.

Chaos Bahamut does Whirlwind at Noel, but failed to knock him in the air since he's defending himself, then casts Dark Ignis, shooting a purple flare bolt and explodes on Noel.

Lightning heals Noel, then shifts into Ravager and casts Thunder at Chaos Bahamut. Snow casts his Blizzard spells. Chaos Bahamut does Whirlwind, knocking Lightning and Snow in the air, then does Umbral Vise, two dark energy orbs in its claws and clashes them at the group knocked in the air, then cast Hell's Inferno on Noel, shooting a giant red fire.

Noel shifts into Commando, casts a Ruin spell then strikes at Chaos Bahamut. Snow shifted into Commando and attacks as well. Chaos Bahamut does Dragon Claw at Lightning then casts Ignis on her.

The battle on Chaos Bahamut was rough. In the end, the dark eidolon was defeated.

[Crystalium extended - Stage 3]

Chaos Bahamut roars at us, then the beast flies high in the sky and vanishes. We were all relieved that it's over.

"That was close." Sazh says.

"No kidding." Snow says.

Lightning and I turned to Noel, who's looking at us curious as well. "Now that the worst is over, mind telling us who you are and what you know?" I ask.

"I'll be happy to explain everything I know." Noel says.

"Maybe not right now." The three of us turns to Fang, who's walking right oast us, yawning and stretching. "It's still late and I say we should hit the hay."

"I'm with Fang. All that fight wore me out." Hope says with a yawn.

We all agree and turned in for the rest of the night. Lightning took Noel to one of the guest rooms on the second floor.

At about eight in the morning, we all got dressed up and gathered in the living room. Serah and Lebreau are cooking up some breakfast for us all. While that's happening, Noel explains everything about himself.

Apparently, Noel was once a l'Cie from a long time ago. Before Cocoon was even made. And he wasn't the only one. That man, Caius, and a girl, Yeul, were also l'Cies turned to crystal. We were all surprised to hear all of this.

"How long were you asleep?" Vanille asks.

"I don't know." Noel says.

"Well Cocoon has been around for over 700 years. So maybe it was that long since if was made when you turned the crystal." Hope explains.

"That sounds about right." Noel says in agreement.

"So what's the word on that Caius fella? He doesn't seem very friendly." Sazh asks.

"Caius was Yeuls guardian. Since Yeul was special, she was required to have a bodyguard to protect her." Noel says.

"How is she special?" I ask.

"She's a Seeress. A person that wields great wisdom. Few people believed that they are a descendant of the Goddness, Etro." Noel says.

Snow is surprised to hear that. "Whoa. Are they really?"

"No one knows for sure. But they are known to be worshipers to the Goddess, that's for certain." Noel says.

"So, if you and Caius are looking for Yeul, why are you fighting each other?" Serah asks.

"I wish I knew. I wanted to help and find her, but Caius has different ideas." Noel looks down, hesitating to continue. We all know that means something bad. Then he faces us. "He wants to destroy Pulse."

We're all horrified to hear that. Or in Lightnings case, shocked. "What? Why would he do that?" Fang asks.

"I don't know, I even asked what it would have to do with saving Yeul, but he won't say." Noel says. "Which is why I have to find him, and Yeul."

"We can come with you." Vanille says.

"I'm with Vanille." I say. "Destroying Cocoon is one thing, but if Pulse falls, it'll be the end of everything."

Everyone else agrees with the idea. Noel apprechates it. "All right, now the question is...how do we find Caius?" Sazh asks.

We all put our heads together, thinking. "Well, he's looking for Yeul. So, if we find her, we'll find Caius." Hope says.

"That's genius, kid." Fang says. "So where could she be at?"

"Caius believes she's still asleep in crystal. But she wasn't with us when we awoken. She could be anywhere." Noel says.

We all out our heads together thinking. After a while, I have an idea. "I think I might have a theory on Yeul's location."

So we all prepare ourselves for travel. Just ouside of the mansion, we're standing by the gates, facing the NORA gang and Dajh.

"You guys behave." Snow says.

"We will, boss. Don't worry." Gabot says.

"Look after Dajh, too." Sazh says.

"Don't worry, Mr. Katzroy. He'a in good hands." Lebreau says.

Lightning rolls her eyes and turns. "Doubtful."

After saying our good-byes, we all make our leave. We all mount on Chocobos and Snowflake and make our leave from the village, heading north into the forest hills.

[Flashback]

Noel is facing one-on-one against a Behemoth. Noel is short on breath, and the Bahamoth is barely as its last legs. Caius just stands in place, watching the whole thing. This is one of Noels lessons that Caius has given. Caius is training Noel to become stronger like Yeul asked him to do while she's visiting Bhunivelze.

Shouting, Noel charges at the Behemoth. The Behemoth roars and charges back. None of them stopped nor starts running away. They're going all Chicken. They both leap in close range and then Noel makes a powerful strike with his weapons while the Behemoth makes its swipe. Noel dodged the attack just bearly, while his strike hits the Behemoth hard.

Noe lands on his feet while the Behemoth falls dead to the ground. Noel puts away his weapons then signs in relief. "Woo! That was cake."

"I've seen better." Caius says.

Noel turns to look at Caius. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"You are improving well, Noel, but you are still far from achieving your goal." Caius says.

"Whatever. As long as I get it done. Maybe one day, I'll become Yeul's guardian." Noel says.

"Don't set your hopes high, my friend." Caius says.

Caius turns from Noel. "Hey, Caius? Aren't you worried about Yeul? I mean, she's facing Bhunivelze by herself."

Caius turns his head over his shoulder, looking at Noel. "I am concerned about the girl. Yeul might be young and weak, but she's very wise." Caius faces forward. "She can take care of herself."

Noel puts his hands behind his head, resting his head back on his hands. "Yeah...you might be right. I just hope she'll be okay."

Meanwhile, Yeul arrives at the Throne Room of the Paddra catacombs. Bhunivelze's chambers rests deep within the hidden tunnels of Paddra. Yeul walks in the darkness, all calm but concern.

Normally, a person would be nervous and worried entering a dark chamber all alone, but not Yeul. She knows she has the Goddess and the Maker looking out for her.

The room brightens as torches on the walls are lit. Yeul looks ahead, at the large throne where a grand Fal'Cie seats upon.

"Hello, my child."

Bhunivelze.


End file.
